The Reaper
by Maikeru Shinigami
Summary: The Reaper kills a boy named Larry's father whose wife Larry's mother proceeds to "kill" his "dog". The Reaper returns looking for payback aiming for Larry by coming after those around him. Rated T for Language and Violence. There may be SOME typos.
1. Twelve Years Ago

3

**CHAPTER 1**

_Twelve Years Ago_

The family was lying on the ground in Hel's Graveyard. Blood and sweat poured down the man's body as his baby son of only one year slept by the tombstone. The mother prayed in the corner hoping for some form of miracle. The Graveyard had a very eerie feel in the night sky, the fog was fairly strong, there were a few dead trees in the field and most of the tombstones were cracked. The man was around six-foot-two inches and had an average body weight.

The Reaper stands over the man and in a sickly voice he speaks, "Your time is up Mr. Pragmer, your time is up."

"You will never get your hand on my family Reaper, never!" the man yelled back at him.

"I would say otherwise it seems as though I have you cornered, as well as your wife, and what about your little baby you surely wouldn't want him to die too now would you?" The Reaper asked. The Reaper walked closer to the boy.

"Don't you lay one finger on him." the man demanded.

The Reaper laughed, "You think you scare me look at all I have accomplished in my d-"

"What you have accomplished?" the man shouted, "You consider killing people as a fun sort of entertainment?"

"You dare to interrupt me, who do you think you are, killing as a fun sort of entertainment, you say, well your right for the first time in your entire life. It won't save you though; The Reaper shows mercy to no man." responded The Reaper.

"I figured that out last year," began the man, "You killed my best friend and don't you act like you don't know what I mean I know it was you."

The man remembers back on that time last year when his best friend was stolen from him. He remembered watching the news on what seemed to be a regular day, sensing something was wrong though when he didn't see his best friend at all that day though. The remembered finding him dead later that day, and then he began to weep.

"You think you can get away with what you do well maybe someone will just have to change that." the man continued.

The Reaper laughed again, "And you think you can be the one to do that, do you?"

"I don't, but I can certainly try." the man answered as he jumped up and grabbed the bloodied baseball bat that he brought with him and took a swing at The Reaper who jumped out of the way.

"You've lost your touch old man." sighed The Reaper.

"It is you who will lose something tonight and I want to be the one to make sure of that." the man replied.

The Reaper continued to laugh at the man in that same deathly tone. With the swings of his scythe he chopped away at the man who moved desperately back and forth jumping out of the way, but The Reaper never slowed on him.

"It would make it easier if you just accepted your death." shouted The Reaper.

"I will never accept death without a fight." the man screamed back.

Laughing again The Reaper spoke, "You are foolish, you think you can stop me? Bore me with some more or maybe, I won't give you chance." The Reaper suddenly swung his scythe with those words catching the man right in the heart.

Blood spewed out of his body quickly and with his last words he spoke to his wife, "Honey, keep Larry safe don't let him be caught too."

The wife did not know what to do as The Reaper walked towards her staring down at her as she crawled along the ground on her back. She kicked at him once and The Reaper moved quickly and just stared at her, but she kicked at him again and The Reaper fell to the ground.

The Reaper began a little chant on the ground; after he finished it a black scruffy dog appeared behind The Reaper and stared into the woman's eyes. "Sick her my pup." The Reaper shouted.

The dog jumped at her and the lady crawled back a couple paces to where her husband's bat was. She picked it up and smacked the dog in the face. The dog fell and she stabbed him in his heart.

The Reaper was suddenly swept away in a whirlwind to a place whose whereabouts are still hidden.

No one knows what happened that night some suggested he simply left to mourn the loss of his dog. Others say his dog was the source of his power and his dog's death took him away too. And others say he's still out there just waiting for his next opportunity.

But now twelve years later, those theories have been thrown away and the night is remembered only as a myth. Today the dog has given this hooded figure his new pet name we have all come to know him by, The Grim Reaper.


	2. The Awakening

**Chapter 2**

_The Awakening_

"Wake up Larry", shouted a lady.

"Huh what's going on?" said the boy. "Are we under attack?"

"No, don't be silly boy you know what we are doing today." the boy sat with a blank look on his face.

"We are going to the mall to get your school supplies." the lady sighed.

"Oh yeah, so are we going now?" asked the boy

"Yes now, hurry and get dressed so we can leave." answered the lady.

The boy put on his clothes and grabbed his wallet getting ready to go. Just as he was about to walk out of his room he saw something strange out in the distance from his window he'd never noticed before. He pulled out a little notebook and wrote down what he saw:

August 1st, 2007  
Dear Journal,  
I just noticed something strange outside my window  
But have no idea what it is, however it looked a lot like a -.

"Honey, get down here we got to get going." the lady yelled up the stairs.

The boy was rather small probably around five-foot-one which was about the norm for a thirteen year old, he had dark brown hair which came to his shoulders and he wore a red t-shirt with blue jeans. His eyes were green, the boy pulled on his shoes. "Coming Mom." he said. Taking one last look at the window he went downstairs.

Unlike the boy, the mother was rather tall around six-foot-two, blue eyes and long, blonde hair that was flowing in the wind as she was standing at the door. She wore a white tank top along with a pair of black jeans. "Let's go, jump in the car." the mother demanded.

They jumped in a beautiful red 2005 Mustang GT. "Seat Belt!" said the mother. You could see their beautiful house from outside the window, it was rather large with a nice shade of yellow, and it had concrete steps leading to the front door. The house was made out of brick.

"I know, I know." replied the boy.

"Just making sure I don't want to lose you." the mother responded.

They rode off down the asphalt road. "So you ready for your first day of high school son?" she asked, the boy said nothing back. "Son, did you hear me?"

"What? Oh yeah, no sorry I was looking out the window." the boy answered.

She sighed. "Son, I swear sometimes you just don't listen to me. So, are you ready for high school?"

"In a way." the boy said back.

"What do you mean?" asked the lady.

"I'm kind of scared. I've heard rumors of the seniors taking the first day of the year to pick on all the freshman, especially us dorks." the boy sighed.

"You are not a dork son?" she said as she was trying to make him feel better, but it wasn't working.

"That's just what you think you haven't seen me at school if you did you would understand what I'm saying." the boy replied.

"I seriously doubt that sweetie and sometimes these so-called dorks are better than they seem don't you remember the story of John Pickett? He was a dork in school and grew up to be a famous astronaut?" the lady asked.

"Yeah, but there's nothing special about me," the boy spoke back. "I mean look at me I don't have the skills to be an astronaut or anything like that, I'm pathetic."

"No you're not son remember the verse in the bible that said the world will hate you, not exactly word for word cause I know there are still people in the world who care about you, so if you trust in God it doesn't matter what you grow up to be you can become a hobo on the side of the streets as long as you believe and we'd still care about you, just remember you are not weak remember Matthew 6:21 says : where your treasure is, there your heart will be also, if you store up your treasures for God he will be happy and in the end you will be happy as well." the mother replied.

"You have a good point Mom, thanks." the boy responded.

She wasn't one-hundred percent sure she got through to him, but decided to drop the subject. "So you want to put on some music?"

"Yeah, how about some Creed mom?" asked the boy.

"Okay," the lady pulled out a CD in the case above her head and stuck it in the CD player in the car "Ah, here we go."

They went down the road listening to the music the boy sang My Sacrifice along with the band.

....

They arrived at the mall. It was rather large in size, so large in fact that one could get lost in there they were standing in a section with four paths to choose from. One side was really short, but much larger than the others in width as it just contained the food court, one side had all your entertainment needs, it had places like FYE, and GameStop. The third of the paths was where all the clothes could be found, they had places such as Hot Topic, Hollister, Pac sun, and other various stores. The last path had all the miscellaneous items featuring stores such as Spencers, K-Mart, and other stores with mixed material. "We're here son; let's go get your stuff." said the mother.

"Yeah, let's get going." the boy spoke back.

They walked in; the mall was abnormally busy that day due to last minute school shoppers. "So where do you want to go first?" the lady asked.

"Hmm I want to stop by Spencers first, they have the backpack that I want." the boy answered.

"Alright then, to Spencers." agreed the mother.

They walked into the store and looked at the backpacks. The store was really neat looking, it was pretty dark and it had neon lights in it and a bunch of interesting items, Ms. Pragmer made sure Larry didn't go to the mature section. "So let's see. Ooh, this one looks nice."

"Yeah but it's not the one I'm looking for." Larry searched through the backpacks trying to find the one he wanted.

"Why don't you tell me what it looks like? Maybe I can help you find it, hun." Ms. Pragmer asked.

"There it is." Larry pulled out a really nice camouflage backpack. "Yes, they still have the Linkin Park backpack I've been wanting; I was beginning to think they had sold out."

"Well it looks like you the one you want so let's pay for it." They walked up to the counter and stuck the backpack on the counter. "How much is it anyway?" the mother asked looking at the boy.

The guy behind the counter then spoke, "Forty-two dollars and twenty-seven cents." He had a strange appearance nothing unusual for this particular store though he had a black Mohawk with what looked like thirty piercings and he wore all black with a black trench coat, chains extended down his pants.

"Excuse me," Ms. Pragmer replied, "Forty-two dollars and twenty-seven cents?"

"Yes." the cashier answered.

"Oh I almost forgot Mom here you go." Larry said as he handed the man three cards. "They should get us thirty percent off, ten percent for each."

"And your total comes out to Twenty-nine dollars and fifty-nine cents." the cashier responded.

"That's better." Ms. Pragmer responded as she paid the money and they left to continue their shopping.

They walked around the store getting the remainder of his supplies. They went to K-Mart and got three Pirates of the Caribbean folders and two Harry Potter notebooks. Larry got all his school clothes all from Hot Topic. The K-Mart was well lit, and it was rather big for this particular store it had various odds and ends lying on the shelves. The Hot Topic however was not lit as well, it was a fairly small store but had some really cool items like the Tripp pants Larry loved to wear, and it was playing some nice grunge rock music over the radio.

Larry and his mom walked out of Hot Topic, "Well is that everything?" Ms. Pragmer asked.

"Yes it is." As they we're walking Larry saw someone he knew. "Is that? Yes it is, Mom can I go say hi to Eric first?" he asked.

"Okay," Ms. Pragmer replied, "but hurry up we need to get back home."

"It'll only be a minute." Larry insisted as he walked away, "Eric, hey Eric." Larry shouted at the boy.

"Oh, hey Larry what are you up to? School shopping as we are?" Eric had a rather muscular look for a fourteen year old he was about five-foot-four but you could tell he worked out he had brown eyes and a blue tee-shirt with blue jeans.

"Yeah, pretty much just some last minute school shopping as usual got some cool stuff this year and I agreed that backpack is tight." Larry replied.

"Yeah it's pretty sweet huh? So what have you been up to this summer?" Eric asked.

"Yeah ... nothing really you know same old, same old. Computer, video games, etcetera, etcetera." answered Larry.

"Ah, so pretty good then? Not so much for me, except well... my Dad died last week." Eric sighed.

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that I always liked your Dad, what happened?" Larry asked.

"We believe it was a heart attack or something we came home one day and he was passed out on the floor bleeding." Eric said back.

"Wow that's horrible." Larry replied.

"Yeah but it happens," Eric decided to quickly change the subject "So got yourself a girlfriend yet?" You could tell by Eric's eyes and the smile on his face he had made one over the summer.

"No not yet." Larry answered.

"Oh well hold on ... Shyann." Eric shouted. A tall about five-foot-six brunette girl came around the corner. She had green eyes and she was wearing a pretty pink shirt with black pants. Eric introduced her, "This is Shyann Wilcox she just moved here from Florida she's looking to make friends I know you won't mind helping her out."

"Of course not, my name is Larry Pragmer nice to meet you." Larry said as they shook hands.

Shyann spoke back, "Nice to meet you too." A voice came around the corner. "Well I got to go that would be my Mom nice to finally meet you Larry." Shyann said before walking away.

"She's beautiful Eric, and seems nice you've done well." Larry said.

"Yeah thanks just wait until you get to know her better. Oh by the way did you look out your window this morning? I saw some kind of black light off in the distance couldn't tell what it was though." Eric said back.

"Yeah it had a distinct shape to it to though I couldn't tell what it looked like, I wrote about it in my journal." Larry answered.

"Larry, let's go we got to get home," Ms. Pragmer said as she came around the corner, "Hey Eric."

"Hello Miss Pragmer well Larry you'd better get going best not to keep your mother waiting if you know what I mean." Eric suggested.

"Yeah I know what you mean well I'll see you at school then, goodbye Eric." Larry replied.

"See Yah Larry." Eric said as Larry walked away.

Ms. Pragmer and Larry walked out to the parking lot. "So what did you guys talk about?" she asked her son curiously.

"Nothing really, just catching up, he has a girlfriend now, her name is Shyann." Larry answered.

"Oh that's nice I knew he'd find someone eventually, nice boy," Ms. Pragmer replied. "Well you ready to go?"

"Yeah, I sure am." Larry responded.


	3. Signs A Coming

**Chapter 3**

_Signs A Coming_

Larry awoke the next morning lying in his bed. He felt odd about this particular day not sure whether to feel bad about it or not all he knew is that something was strange about this day. Larry looked out his window and for the second day in a row he noticed a black glowing light outside. He was still unsure what it was so he pulled out a pair of binoculars and looked out in the pasture to the light.

"Oh my gosh!" shouted Larry, "Is that -?" but before he could get the words out of his mouth his mother rushed into his room.

"Honey, are you ready yet? You should be down here getting ready for church not staring out through your window." said Ms. Pragmer.

"Yes mom," replied Larry as he grabbed himself a pair of clothes and ran to the bathroom to get his bath.

.......

"Larry are you done in there yet I don't want to be late again today we are speaking on a very important subject." Ms. Pragmer shouted.

"Yes mom, I know, just a minute," Larry said as he pulled up his socks, "Okay there we go," he opened the bathroom door, "We can go now."

"Alright let's get to the car." Ms. Pragmer demanded. They went outside and jumped in the car, "So are you ready to learn more about our subject we've been discussing the last couple of weeks?"

"Yes the subject we are reviewing is very interesting ... perhaps because we've literally had to deal with it before though." Larry answered.

Larry looked out the window to where he noticed the black light earlier, but it was no longer there. He knew he would have the chance to find out what it was, he could tell it had a strange shape to it, but wasn't sure exactly what it was.

They arrived at a beautiful church that was in a beautiful field of grass. The church was large and white with a steeple at the top, and the sign out front listed the times and dates of the church services, "Well we're here Larry I'm so excited about today, aren't you?" Ms. Pragmer asked.

"Of course I am," Larry replied, "I've been waiting for this subject to pop up my entire life."

"Okay well let's get in the church then." Ms. Pragmer said.

They got out of the car and walk to the front of the church. Larry opened the doors, the inside the church was just as beautiful as the outside rather large with partially white walls, in various place there were paintings showing various different events described in the bible. You could see Adam and Eve standing in the middle of a beautiful meadow with different kinds of animals behind them, another showed Noah take two of different kinds of animals to his ark, and then there were eight more painting on the wall from other event in the bible. When he walked in he was greeted by many people. Larry received a couple of "Hello's" and "How are you doing's" and he would answer "Hello, I'm fine." to each of them. He was slightly confused though as he continued through the crowd of people, usually Eric was one of the first people to say hello to him, they didn't speak much at church but today neither said a word to the other because Eric appeared to not be there. "How strange they never miss."

"Hey Brother Love." Larry spoke to a man who looked rather old. He was a sixty-two years of age wearing his glasses and a green casual outfit; he had white hair and green eyes.

"Why hello there Larry," said Brother Love, "You ready to hear what I'm going to be preaching about today? Death is a touchy subject especially for ones like you who have seen it happen."

"Yeah, I'm ready but I was wondering; do you know where The Stautzes are today? I'm used to seeing Eric right when I walk in the door." Larry replied.

"I'm afraid not Larry it's probably nothing to worry about though he's probably home sick or something people miss all the time." answered Brother Love.

"Yeah, but I just have a really weird feeling about today as if something is going to go wrong any second now." Larry responded.

"Yeah we all have had that feeling at some point in our life it's nothing to set your focuses on though and if anything does happen you can consult with me if you need to but as for now we need to get the service started. Maybe we can talk afterwards?" Brother Love insisted.

"Yes, that would be great I'd really appreciate it if you would." Larry agreed.

"Alright well I'll talk to you after the service then Larry." replied Brother Love.

The preacher went to the platform and the service started with a prayer and a song. Afterwards he started to deliver his sermon. "If you would please turn to Deuteronomy 30:19 where it reads [I call heaven and earth to record this day against you that I have set before you life, death, blessing, and cursing : therefore choose life so that both you and your seed may live, now we all know that Adam and Eve are unfortunately the reason why we now grow old and die but if we put our faith in our almighty God we shall surely flourish forever in paradise] and I know we all want that for ourselves, let's take another verse. Turn with me to Genesis 2:17 where God forewarns Adam not to eat from the tree there it says, [Of the tree of knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.] So we see here Adam had a simple task and though he lost that opportunity to live forever when he sinned doesn't mean we can't earn it as we all know John 3:16 word for word that if we believe in him we will have everlasting life. Now we will read our last verse and after giving proof death will be defeated we will give have our own Larry Pragmer read us 1st Corinthians 13: 4-7 to show us God's commandment on how we must act, now if you turn with me to 1st Corinthians 15:26 it says the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death ... so we have his word that he will do away with death and in Revelations 21:4 we know it says word for word death will be no more. Now please give your attention to Larry Pragmer as he reads to us 1st Corinthians 13: 4-7."

Everyone clapped as Larry walked up to the stage and he spoke, "Many people ask what God means when he says love your neighbor as yourself or to love him. After all there are many types of love out there we have puppy love, true love, lustful love but what does God want well? He gives us his true definition of love in 1st Corinthians 13: 4-7 where it reads, [Love is always patient and kind, it is never jealous. Love is neither selfish nor conceited, it does not brag, it does not look at the wrongs of others but delights in the truth. It's always ready to trust, hope, and endure all things], It goes on to say Love never fails now certainly "love" does seem to fail a lot in cases of relationships and marriage but the truth is that most of the times it's not real love, but fake love. If you show the love defined in the Corinthians you will not fail but remember love is goes hand in hand so it can't be one person loving the other it has to be both ways. So the true defeater of death is love for God is love."

Everyone clapped as Larry went back to his seat. He felt a sense of accomplishment as Brother Love walked back to the platform. "Very well done indeed Larry, you have greatness thrust upon you. Now before we leave with our closing prayer, do we have any prayer requests?" asked Brother Love. A hand raised Larry automatically noticed it was Ian Longstran, a chinese boy he met in class last year. He was about five-foot-six and an average sized boy wearing a nice dress outfit on this day. He short black hair and small brown eyes. Brother Love pointed at him and spoke, "Ah yes, Ian?"

"Pray for Eric he's not having the best day they haven't told us exactly what happened yet but we do know he will be ready for the first day of school tomorrow but I heard that he really needs to be kept in our prayers right now." Ian exclaimed.

"Yes we will certainly remember Brother Eric." Brother Love said as Larry started worrying, what was wrong with his best friend? Was he okay? Does he need someone to talk to?"

"Well since there's no one else let's bow our heads and pray." Brother Love said the prayer mentioning to watch out for Eric and closed the service.

Larry went to the front to talk to Brother Love. "Ah yes you wanted to speak to me more right Larry? I do want to say well done on your first talk today."

"Thanks! Yeah, I'm still kind of worried especially after Ian's prayer request I'm not sure what's wrong with Eric." Larry said.

"It's okay boy, just don't worry too much if it's that bad you can go talk to him right? And remember I'm here whenever you need me." Brother Love said caringly.

"Yes, thank you Brother Love also I was wondering if you looked out your window the past two days and noticed a black light in the shape of a dog?" asked Larry.

"Why I'm not sure, I don't believe I have even looked out my window at all the past couple days. Why do you want to know?" Brother Love answered.

"No reason I was just wondering because I had never seen it before." Larry replied.

"Well I'm sure it's okay Larry but don't let your mind wander too far away or you might get lost," Brother Love exclaimed, "It looks like your mom is calling you Larry you better go just remember keep your head up."

"Thanks Brother Love I'll see you later then." Larry responded.

"Let's go Larry." shouted Ms. Pragmer.

"Coming mom," Larry said as he walked towards the back, "Working my way through right now."

Larry got through the crowd and reached his mom. "Sorry it took so long I had to speak to Brother Love." They walked out the door, got in the car and rode off.

"It's okay, he told me you two we're going to speak after the service so I let you stay longer than usual." Ms. Pragmer said.

"Thanks," Larry replied, "I was wondering I've looked out my window the past couple days and noticed there's been a black light shaped like a dog in the distance, do you know what it is?"

"What did you say?" she had stopped fast in the middle of the highway and people were honking their horns at her. One rolled down his window and said, "Idiot what are you doing?" and another flicked her off.

"Mom careful," Larry said, "Drive please I said I saw a black light in the shape of a dog outside my window do you know what it is?" he repeated.

Ms. Pragmer continued driving, "Sorry I thought you said something else, and no I've never heard of anything like that in my life." she insisted.

Larry wasn't thoroughly convinced she had no idea what he was talking about but he dropped the subject and turned on the radio in the car and sang along with the verses.

......

After the drive they arrived back home, "Well let's go inside. Oh, by the way you did great on your first talk today at church." Ms. Pragmer told her son.

"Thanks mom that means a lot," Larry replied with a smile.

They went inside and Larry grabbed the remote flicking through the channels trying to find something interesting. He stopped on the last place you'd expect him to, the news where a reporter was speaking:

"A lady has been found dead inside her home today. We are here with here with her son Eric Stautz to see if he noticed what happened?"

Eric was wrapped up in a blanket on the side of the street shivering to death. You could see his house small house behind him it was small and made out of wood and it looked and old and beaten. Larry had never seen Eric looking the way he did, but it was clear why Eric missed church now. Eric then began to answer the question in a stuttering voice:

"I was in my room and I heard something downstairs and when I went in there, there was a big black dog beside my mother and … and he jumped he jumped up and he mauled my mother. I was trying to smack him away but he killed her and went out to my backyard and disappeared into a glowing black light in the distance. Larry if you are listening please come down here I'm scared." His mixture of stuttering and crying made it hard to make out what he was saying but Larry got the gist of it.

The reporter spoke again, "And that is our report down here where a lady has been attacked and we advise all to be careful. We seriously doubt a dog came in here and mauled her, but seeing as her husband died just last week we want everyone to take caution. Once again this is Bruce Winston."

"Oh my gosh!" shouted Larry, "Mom I need to go down to Eric's house I'll be right back okay?"

"Okay just be home before dinner sugar and be careful." Ms. Pragmer exclaimed.

Larry ran the whole two blocks down to Eric's house. Eric was still on the curb but he had stopped shivering and stuttering, "Eric are you okay? I just watched the news?"

"Yeah ... I'm just worried about that dog I think he may have killed my father last week too, I saw a glowing black light outside that day to but it wasn't as bright for some reason but I'm scared." Eric admitted.

"It's alright I've got your back and Brother Love told me to tell you he does to, well since you are ... you know ... would you like to come live with us at our house for now awhile?" Larry asked.

"Yeah, that sounds good," answered Eric, "Thanks a bunch man."

"No problem let's go then it's getting late we should be going to bed soon." Larry replied.

"Yes of course we got to go to bed early too since school starts in the morning and we don't want to sleep in too late like we usually do." Eric said as they walked off towards Larry's house where they walked inside as soon as they arrived.

"Are you sure you'll be okay Eric?" Larry asked as they walked up the stairs and into his room.

"Yeah I'm more scared for you than me right now." He seemed to have a hard time getting those words out.

"Why are you more worried about me?" Larry asked as they lyed down on their separate beds.

"Because of that dog." answered Eric.

"What about him Eric?" Larry asked.

"Oh it's nothing, but we need to get to sleep." said Eric.

"No! What about the dog Eric?" Larry repeated.

"He, He spoke he wants your mom and he wants … you." Eric replied.


	4. First Day of School

**Chapter 4**

_First Day of School_

"Excuse me," said Larry, "Did you just say the dog talked like with his mouth?"

"Yes," Eric began, "I mean I know it sounds crazy and all but I'm telling you that the dog spoke."

"Are you sure, completely sure?" asked Larry.

"Positive," Eric replied. "Well I'm going to sleep can we talk about this more like tomorrow or something?"

"Yeah sure, I think that would be good." Larry responded

Larry didn't sleep too well that night. Every time he went to sleep he dreamt about being cornered by the dog in a dark alleyway. Whenever he looked at the dog, the dog would say "You're mine," in a sickly type of voice.

Larry awoke in the middle of the night, "What a terrible nightmare," he started, "What time is it?" Nobody answered, so he went downstairs to get himself a snack from the fridge. He checked the clock while down there. "4:52 A.M. well let's see what we got. Apples, bananas, sandwich, what do I want? Ah, there we go."

Larry ripped off a branch of some grapes and closed the door. He turned around to leave the kitchen and let out a low scream. He was staring in staring in front of himself at a medium sized black dog. "You're not really there," he said with his eyes closed. When he reopened his eyes the dog was no longer there.

"I'm losing my mind," Larry exclaimed, "I should get back to bed maybe then I'll forget." he said as he walked back upstairs to his room and went back to sleep.

...

The alarm clock rang signaling for Larry and Eric to wake up and get ready for their first day of high school.

"So Larry" began Eric, "Did you sleep alright?"

"Not really I kept having this terrible nightmare," Larry paused, "I was cornered in a dark alleyway by a black dog and he said [You're mine.] every time I looked. Also when I woke up in the middle of the night last night getting a snack I thought I saw a big black dog, but it appears as though it was just a figment of my imagination."

"Wow that doesn't sound like a very fun night, Larry" Eric replied.

"No really I thought it was quite peachy." Larry said sarcastically.

Ms. Pragmer started yelling, "Come on boys, the bus will be here in five minutes."

"We're coming mom, just got to get our shoes on and we'll be right down." Larry exclaimed.

"Okay hun." she said back

"Oh, Eric you got your schedule with you?" Larry asked.

"Oh yeah, I do, here let me see yours too we can compare them." Eric answered.

"Let's compare them on the bus," Larry started, "Got to make sure we don't miss it."

"Yeah, that seems like a good idea." Eric agreed.

They ran downstairs and out the door saying their goodbyes and love yous to Ms. Pragmer. They waited about a minute for the bus to get there. "Get in boys," said the driver, "Got ten minutes to get you all to school."

"My name is Andrea Duran or as you will call me Mrs. Duran," the driver introduced herself, "You should know the rules, just don't do anything stupid."

Larry and Eric told the lady their names and found themselves a seat near the middle of the bus, "So you still want to compare those schedules Eric?" Larry asked.

"Oh definitely, let's do that" Eric replied as they both pulled out their schedules

City: Hel, California Name: Pragmer, Larry Grade: 9

2007-2008 Hel High School Class Schedule

1st - Algebra I - 213

2nd - World History - 324

3rd - Basketball/Weight - GYM

4th - Biology Honors - 414

5th - English I - 612

6th - Spanish I - 800

7th - Drama - 112

City: Hel California Name: Stautz, Eric Grade: 9

2007-2008 Hel High School Class Schedule

1st - Spanish I - 800

2nd - World History - 324

3rd - English I - 612

4th - Biology Honors - 414

5th - Algebra I - 212

6th - Basketball/Soccer - GYM

7th - Intensive Reading - 515

"Sweet, we have second and fourth period together." Larry said

"Yeah, that should be cool." replied Eric.

The bus was now arriving at the school. "Well here we are," said the driver, be back by 3:23 if you are riding the bus home too."

"Well this is it Larry," Eric began, "We've made it to High School." The school was beautiful two stories high, very large in width and had draperies hanging over the sides of the brick walls. Larry started walk, "Looks amazing, hey hold on a second Larry."

"Oh are we waiting for someone?" Larry asked.

"Yeah," Eric replied, "Shyann should be here any minute."

"Alright sure let's wait for her," Larry turned to the side, "Hey look it's Troy, Hey Troy" he shouted

A medium sized brown boy walked over to them. His pants looked a little big and he had his hat tilted to the side. "What is up my wigga jiggas?" Troy asked.

"Wigga Jiggas?" Larry and Eric both said looking confused.

"For real man," Troy began, "I made it up over the summer for my pals."

"Oh really, cool." Larry replied thinking that he had possibly just heard the weirdest name for pal ever.

"Well anyways my wigga jiggas, I'll be seeing you around, I got to make sure I keep up with my crew."

"True True," said Eric, "just one thing, you think you can just call us pals?" Larry nodded in agreement.

"Oh for sure man, no problem," Troy replied, "See yah."

"Well there's Shyann coming this way, Shyann over here." Eric shouted. Shyann heard him immediately and came over.

"Hey sweetie," Shyann said right before they kissed. "Oh and hi there Larry how are you doing?"

"Doing alright." Larry replied.

"That's good, by the way, Eric I saw the news yesterday I'm sorry about what happened." Shyann said with sorrow in her voice.

"Thanks, it's alright Larry rushed over right after he saw it and helped me, I'm living with him now." Eric replied.

"Why that was nice of you Larry." Shyann exclaimed.

"Of course, anything for a friend." Larry said.

The bell rang, "Well we better go to class, only got five minutes to get there," Eric began, "Shyann where do you go first?"

She opened her schedule. "Spanish One, Room 800."

"Hey we got the same first period," said Eric. "Who else you got?" she showed them her schedule with that question:

City: Hel, California Name: Wilcox, Shyann Grade: 9

2007-2008 Hel High School Class Schedule

1st - Spanish I - 800

2nd - World History - 324

3rd - Algebra I - 212

4th - Biology Honors - 414

5th - Basketball/Weight - GYM

6th - English I - 613

7th - BST - 901

"Cool," Eric said, "You have me first, and you've got me and Larry second and fourth."

"Sweet, that sounds good nice to have people I know in my classes." she replied.

"Yeah," Larry exclaimed, "that should be fun."

Shyann started walking toward the class but Larry just stood there, "Hey Eric, come here," Larry said as Eric walked over to him. "Does that look like the black light we've been seeing?" he asked.

"Yeah that is the light, it looks like it coming from the field across from the graveyard," Eric answered.

"It is," Larry replied, Whoa dude, we got two minutes to get to class," he began to whisper in Eric's ear. "We should go check it out in the morning it seems like it always shows up around between 6:30 - 7:00 A.M. we can walk it's only a couple minutes from the house."

"Yeah," Eric whispered back, "We can do that we can get up at sic o'clock and tell your Mom we are leaving early to give a new student a tour of the school if she asks." Eric then started talking a bit louder as they both walked toward Shyann, "Hey Shyann me and Larry have to do something in the morning so we might not be in front of the school tomorrow okay?"

"Yeah, that's cool," Shyann replied, "We best be getting to our classes for now though, see you later Larry."

"See yah." he said. They all power walked to their respective classes, Larry got there just in time for his. The halls of the school all looked about the same the walls were white and some parts had lockers on the side, there were doors at different locations, and a few of the teachers had decorated their doors welcoming back the kids.

He walked into his Algebra class ready to begin his high school life, the teacher began to speak, "Welcome to Algebra One, I am your teacher Mr. Smith first things first I have to take attendance." Mr. Smith was rather tall about six-foot-one, with brown hair and he was wearing a nice casual outfit.

He began to call the role; only one person wasn't there, someone Larry didn't know, "Larry Pragmer." said Mr. Smith.

"Here." Larry replied.

A few more were called and then the teacher said one of his friend's names, "Troy Underwood."

"Here." answered Troy.

The teacher went on for another couple people and told everyone they had five minutes to catch up with any friends. Larry went to speak to Troy, "Hey man, I see you got Algebra first."

"Yeah man, for real, this should be cool huh?" Troy replied.

"Yeah can I see your schedule?" Larry asked.

"Of course man, let me see yours too." Troy replied as they exchanged schedules.

City: Hel, California Name: Underwood, Troy Grade: 9

2007-2008 Hel High School Class Schedule

1st - Algebra I - 213

2nd - Basketball/Soccer - GYM

3rd - AP World History - 325

4th - Biology Honors - 414

5th - Band - 084

6th - Spanish I - 800

7th - English I - 613

"Cool man, we got each other first, fourth and sixth." Troy said.

"Yeah and Eric, and his new girlfriend Shyann will also be in our fourth period class." Larry replied.

"Well, that should be fun." Troy said.

The teacher got up again handing out papers, "Alright so anyways here are your supply sheets." The kids looked at the list nothing unusual on it though just the regular notebooks, pencil, and things like that. The teacher then went over the rules, "And here are my class rules on this poster here behind my desk." The kids read over the rules.

Class Rules

1. No Swearing

2. No Fighting

3. No Cheating

4. Food and drinks are allowed.

Consequences

1. Warning

2. Warning

3. Writing Assignment

4. Detention

5. ISS (3 days) *only if it's serious*

Rewards

1. Candy

2. Fun Days

3. Computers

"This guy is pretty cool." Larry said and the whole class agreed with him.

The teacher went over the rules and told them about all the details.

....

The bell rang the students went to their next classes.

"See yah Larry." Troy said.

"See yah Troy." Larry replied.

Larry went to his next class; he was excited because he knew Eric and Shyann had the same class. He walked in and found them both right away and took a seat next to them.

"How was your first class Larry?" Eric asked.

"Awesome, Mr. Smith is really cool," Larry replied, "And yours?"

"Not bad," Eric said.

The bell rang as the teacher walked into the room. "Welcome to World History, I am Miss Laureen." She went on with the usual teacher lecture, the standard code of conduct, the class rules, and gave them a supplies list. "Also if your fifth period is an even classroom number or you have gym you will be in Lunch A, Everyone else has B." Mrs. Laureen was a short lady at about five-foot-one, and probably around her mid-thirty's, she was wearing a red dress and had blonde curly hair with brown eyes.

"Cool that means we have the same lunch." Larry said to Eric and Shyann.

"Yeah, that's awesome." Eric and Shyann said at the same time.

The bell rang, "Wow these classes fly by." Eric exclaimed.

"Yeah they do well I'll you guys in fourth," Larry replied.

They went their separate ways to their classes. Larry's third period was really boring he didn't know anyone and the teacher, Coach Carisma, only told them the rules and supplies they needed. Coach Carisma was around five-foot-ten but he had big muscles, he was wearing a blue tee shirt with black pants. The bell rang and Larry went to his fourth period.

"Yeah, I think I'll my next class," Larry said happily.

He was right, he had Mr. Targon's class with Eric, Shyann, and Troy who were already in the class when he got there, and another of his friends Ian, from his church, was there too. Mr. Targon was around sixty years old, and around five-foot-four, he wore a suit to class: a white button up shirt, and black slacks; he green eyes and white hair. The class didn't get much of a chance to talk but they did get to see Ian's schedule.

City: Hel, California Name: Longstran, Ian Grade: 9

2007-2008 Hel High School Schedule

1st - English I - 613

2nd - Spanish I - 800

3rd - Algebra I - 213

4th - Biology Honors - 414

5th - World History - 324

6th - Chorus - 902

7th - Basketball/Physical Fitness - GYM

"Well looks like this is the only class any of us have you in." said Larry.

"Yeah," Ian began, "Well at least we get to see other once during the day."

"True man." responded Troy.

"Yeah it should be a pretty fun class." Eric replied.

Shyann gave an agreeing nod as the bell started to ring. "Well time for lunch, want to all eat together?" Larry asked.

Shyann, Eric, and Ian all said yes. Troy then began speaking, "Nah I'm going to hang out with some of my other friends today, we don't have any classes together and it would nice to see them, I'll probably eat with you guys some days though."

They all left for lunch, Larry, Eric, Shyann, and Ian all went into the cafeteria as Troy went to some of his friends that were outside.

Larry and his friends caught up with each other as they talked about their various summer vacations, and Shyann spoke about moving and her old school.

They then had another friend show up; Johnny Macintosh came to their table. He was about five-foot-six and had long blonde hair with blue eyes. He was wearing a DC shirt and blue jeans, "Dude, how are you guys?" he asked in a surfer voice, "Haven't seen you in like forever."

They told Johnny about their summers and Johnny told them about his, Eric bringing up his girlfriend.

"Yeah and I just got a girlfriend too." Johnny said.

"Really, congrats, who is it?" Larry asked.

"Clarise Johnson." he replied.

"Are you serious?" Larry began, "We've known her since fourth grade, how did you two start going out?"

"We just started talking man and she thought I was cool and I thought she was cool so one day I asked her out and she said yes," Johnny answered. "It was gnarly dudes."

"Why don't you bring her over here?" Eric asked.

"Can't bro. she's got B Lunch." Johnny replied.

"That sucks, you know who she has the rest of the day?" Larry asked.

"Yeah totally man she has Algebra one in room two-thirteen, English one in room three-thirteen, and last she's got Drama in 112," Johnny replied.

"Cool, then I have her in seventh and Shyann has her in sixth," Larry began, "What do you have left?"

"Nothing I'm a senior now, I just wanted to see if anyone I knew was here while waiting for Clarise," Johnny replied.

"True, forgot about that," Larry said. The bell rang and they all went to their classes saying their goodbyes. Larry thought the next class would be awful, it's hard enough having an English class, but even harder when you don't know anyone in there.

He walked into his class and took his seat; the teacher was about fifty years old and had blonde hair that was fading to white with brown eyes. The teacher began speaking, "My name is Mrs. Slowth, and instead of doing role call I'm going to have you talk about yourselves and mark off who's not here." She called down the list with only one person absent and then she said her name, "Marie Pollish?"

A beautiful brunette-haired girl in a black tee-shirt and jeans came up to the front of the class she was about five-foot-two and she had just the cutest face in the world. She told everyone about herself, but Larry didn't hear anything she said he was locked in her beautiful green eyes.

Marie walked back to her seat, "Larry Pragmer?" said Mrs. Slowth. Larry didn't move, "Larry Pragmer?" Mrs. Slowth repeated as one of Larry's classmates slapped him on the back.

"What?" said Larry.

"Are you Larry Pragmer?" Mrs. Slowth asked.

"Oh yeah." Larry answered.

"Well, then it's your turn." Mrs. Slowth said as the class let out a little giggle.

"Well let's see my names Larry Pragmer I'm thirteen years old and I am freshman, I am a die-hard christian, but I want try to force my beliefs on anyone, and well I don't know what else to say but if you have any questions you can just ask me." Larry walked back to his seat.

Mrs. Slowth gave him some applause and continued down the list. By the time she finished there was just five minutes left. Larry looked behind him into Marie's eyes. She looked back, he smiled and she gave a small grin as she gave her hair a little twirl. This was the first time Larry had seen her because she had just moved there from Washington. The bell rang and everyone left for their classes. Larry was stopped in the hallway though.

"Hey." Larry heard someone say. He turned around and saw that Marie had stopped him in the hallway. "Oh hi there, I'm Larry" he blushed.

"Yeah silly I know, we just had class together. I heard your speech you seem like a really nice guy." Marie said.

"Oh thanks," Larry began, "Your speech made you seem nice too."

She laughed a little, "Are you sure you heard anything I said you seem to be a little, well distracted."

"Yeah okay, maybe, but," Larry got interrupted.

"It's okay Larry, I know what you were doing, and at least you were looking into my eyes, many guys don't." Marie began, "I can tell when people like me and I know you definitely do so I was thinking maybe we could talk sometime, as friends, for now at least?"

"Of course no hurry or anything we just met." Larry replied.

"Yeah you seem to be a very respectable guy maybe you can call me later and I can tell you my speech?" Marie giggled.

"Okay I can do that." Larry answered.

"Well you sure can't if you don't have my number," Marie said as she pulled out a pen and wrote her number on a little piece of paper. "Well, there you go I'll talk to you later we need to get to class, bye."

"Goodbye," Larry went off to his next class. The bell rang before he got there though. "Oh shucks." he said as he walked away. Larry wound out entering the classroom about twenty seconds late.

"Why hello," said the teacher, "My name is Miss Laudry and you are?"

"Larry Pragmer sorry I'm late, I got lost." Larry lied.

"It's okay it happens on the first day all the time." Mrs. Laudry went on with her beginning lecture as Larry took the desk by Troy. Mrs. Laudry was about twenty-three years old and very beautiful, she was around five-foot-four, had blonde hair with green eyes, and was wearing a red tee-shirt with black pants.

"Hey man," Troy began, "Why are you late?"

"Oh well I'll tell you about it later it's a long story and we should listen to the teacher first." Larry replied.

"Alright that's cool." Troy agreed.

The teacher continued her speech and when she finished there was about three minutes left so she let everyone talk freely.

"Alright man, so, you got to tell, why are you late?" Troy asked.

"Oh yeah," Larry told him about the girl in fifth period and the speeches and how they talked in the hallway.

"Dude, that's awesome, sounds like you got yourself a nice catch there man." Troy said.

The bell rang and they had to go, "Well I'll see you later Troy, we'll talk then."

"Alright pal, peace." Larry went to his drama class on time and took an empty seat by Clarise. The teacher was in her mid-forty's; about five-foot-three with light brown hair and blue eyes she was wearing a purple dress.

The teacher, now introduced as Mrs. Able gave them her lecture then told them to pick a partner because they would need one for their first project.

Larry asked Clarise and she said sure so they partnered up. "So what you been up to Larry?" Clarise asked.

"Not too much just being bored and stuff, how about you?" Larry asked.

"Not a whole lot, been hanging out with Johnny mostly." Clarise replied.

They spent the little bit of class remaining just catching up until the bell rang signaling the end of the day. "Well I hope you guys first days of school were enjoyable," said Mrs. Able.

"Okay I'll see you tomorrow Clarise, Johnny is waiting for you outside." Larry said.

"Alright Larry, talk to you tomorrow, bye." Clarise replied.

Larry went out to his bus and met up with Eric who was kissing Shyann goodbye when he got there.

"Hey Eric," Larry began, "How was your first day?"

"Pretty good Shyann had to go quickly," Eric replied, "How about yours?"

"Amazing, we'll talk about it on the bus ride home." Larry answered.

They got on the bus and after they took off he told him what happened in and after his fifth period class.

"Sweet dude," Eric said, "You talking to her tomorrow?"

"Actually, I'm talking to her tonight, she gave me her number." he answered.

"Awesome, we're growing up man." Eric replied.

They got off the bus to Larry's house, and talked about their first days until about 6 o'clock and Larry reminded Eric about them leaving to go to the field across from the graveyard in the morning and then went to call Marie.

He dialed in her number on the phone and he heard the ring. Someone picked up the phone, "Hello?" said a lady.

"Hey is Marie there?" Larry asked.

"Oh yes, this must be Larry hold on." the lady answered.

He could hear her shouting for Marie to come to the phone.

"Hello." Marie said as she got to the phone.

"Hey, Marie this is Larry." Larry replied.

"Hello Larry, how are you doing?" Marie asked

"I'm doing how about you? Enjoy your first day?" Larry responded.

"Yeah it was awesome." Marie said back.

"Well that's good." Larry said happily.

Marie sort of giggled. "Yes, it is, it's great actually. So which church do you go to?"

"The First Baptist Church down by the grocery store." Larry responded.

"Cool I think I might like to go there too I've been going to church my entire life and it'll be nice to go with you, do you think you could pick me up on the way one day?" Marie asked.

"Yeah sure, I'll talk to my Mom about it; of course you'll have to show me where you live though." Larry answered.

"That won't be a problem maybe we could walk home together tomorrow?" Marie suggested.

"Just a second I'll ask my Mom," he put the phone down, asked his mom and came back, "She said yes, so I will definitely walk you home tomorrow."

"You're so sweet, by the way, what lunch do you have?" Marie asked.

"A Lunch." Larry answered.

"Cool me too, I just missed the first half of the day, but hey I got to go finish the dishes." Marie replied.

"Oh I'm sorry I didn't take your time did I?" Larry asked.

"No of course not, you could never take too much of my time away, I just got to go before I get in trouble." Marie said as she giggled.

"Okay I'll see you tomorrow then, maybe we can meet in front of the cafeteria before and then after school?" Larry suggested.

"Oh yes, of course, but yeah I got to go talk to you tomorrow, bye." Marie agreed.

"Yeah talk to you then, bye." Larry responded.

They hung up and Larry went to his room. "So what she say Larry?" asked Eric.

"Oh we just talked, we're going to give her a ride to our church on Wednesday and I'm walking her home tomorrow so I can see where her house is." Larry answered as he lyed down on his bed, "Well I'm getting tired."

"It's only eight o'clock though." Eric said.

"Yeah well we got to get up at six in the morning remember?" Larry reminded him.

"Oh yeah best to get a good night of sleep then, night" Eric replied.

Larry had a good sleep this time he dreamed about dancing with Marie in a ballroom to a nice romantic love song.

....

The morning came and Larry got a nudge which woke him up.

It was Eric, "Hey dude get up it's six o'clock."

"What? Oh yeah well let's get ready I'm going to go get a bath." Larry replied.

He took a shower, got dressed, and went back to his room. "So let's go see what this light is." said Larry. Eric nodded in agreement.

They walked a few blocks to the little field across from the graveyard, but they weren't alone sitting on the ground was the guy Larry automatically noticed as the clerk from Spencers.


	5. The Outcast

**Chapter 5**

_The Outcast_

The field was quite large, and plain it had yellow grass on the ground and in various places there were a couple of weeds. A chain-link fence surrounded most of the area.

"Umm, hey," began Larry, "What are you doing here? Haven't I seen you before?"

"Well if it isn't coupon boy, yeah you've seen me, I'm a cashier at Spencers." he said.

Larry already knew this information, but he continued to act sort of surprised. "Oh yeah, of course, I remember now."

"Yeah well what brings you guys out here?" he asked.

"We are out here to check on this strange black light we've been seeing lately." replied Eric.

"Same for me, I've heard legends of this light for years, but I had never seen it until last week on July twenty-fourth, I would've never believed it until I saw it on that day." the cashier said, "Oh by the way my name is Kevin Able."

"Able, why does that sound familiar?" Larry asked.

"Oh you probably have my mother for a class, you are in high school right?" Kevin replied.

"Yeah we both do, and yes I think your mom might be my fifth period drama teacher."  
Larry answered.

"Yeah that would be her." said Kevin.

"So what is the legend you've heard?" Eric asked.

"Oh yes," Kevin began, "Anyways many years ago there was dog who supposedly attacked anyone that came within sight and every time someone died the black light would appear. This dog kept appearing whenever the Reaper had someone hurt and defenseless, then he would summon the dog and the dog would kill them. They also said that just twelve years and ten days before this day a woman stabbed the dog in the heart and ever since the Reaper has disappeared off the face of the Earth."

Kevin continued, "Many scientists believed that the dog was his true source of power, that dog was the reason the Reaper lived, I believe however that dog symbolizes his chosen heir, the one who will take over after the Reaper passes away because otherwise I don't believe the Reaper could've lived these almost twelve years without his dog. If the dog was his source of power the Reaper surely would have died. But as I said the dog was stabbed on that night, but apparently the Reaper's plan was not disposed of because these strange lights are appearing again."

"Hang on, ten days ago, you are saying that's when the light first appeared again?" Larry asked.

"Yes that was the day why do you ask?" Kevin replied.

Eric answered him with a look of sorrow in his eyes, "Ten days ago, that was the day my father had died, I'm guessing that had to be the dog."

"You don't it's possible perhaps," Larry began, "The dog never died. Maybe just transformed into a different form that day waiting to regain power?"

"I suppose that could be possible though, I highly doubt it; there was probably some type of curse put on the dog. Many people including myself believe the complete opposite of the scientists, that the Reaper was actually the dog's source of power and that without him the dog would die."

"But the Reaper is dead so shouldn't the dog should be dead?" Larry replied.

"As I said the women stabbed the dog, and the no one has ever been known to have killed the Reaper so his essence could still be flowing through the air to this day." Kevin answered.

"That makes sense." said Eric.

"How do you know all this?" Larry asked.

"My mother has told me these legends of what had happened I always figured she had told me them for fun, because she would always tell me on Halloween I figured it was strictly for entertainment, at least up until I saw the light last week. Many people are starting to believe I'm insane for believe these stories not but the proof is all around us." answered Kevin.

"My mother." Larry said.

"You mother?" Kevin asked dumbfounded, "What about her?"

"My mother she had to be the one who stabbed the dog back then she's told me the story about what had happened." Larry replied.

"Your mother," Kevin began, "so then your last name is Pragmer?"

"Yes," Larry answered, "Why do you ask?"

"It is said that only a true member of the Pragmer family can defeat the Reaper for  
good." Kevin replied.

"So what you are saying then is that, I could be the one destined to do that?"

"It is very possible," Kevin began, "although it could still be another member in your family. Shouldn't you guys be getting off to school now?"

"Yeah you're right," Eric answered, "as a matter of fact I think I'll go on ahead Larry you can stay and talk a little more if you like."

"Alright Eric I'll catch up with you soon." Larry said as Eric walked to the school.

"So do you have any more questions to ask me?" asked Kevin.

"Just one this light it definitely symbolizes the dog then?" Larry asked.

"Not necessarily, this is the part where it gets tricky, the light had been seen a couple times before the dog was said to be alive, all we know is that it symbolizes a murder the rest is unclear." replied Kevin.

"Wow that does sound pretty tricky then." Larry responded.

"Yes, you should get off to school now then; you only have about ten minutes." Kevin said.

"I should but I have a few more minutes and I want to see this light up close." Larry insisted.

"That's understandable, I'll try to keep track of the time for you, so how have you been?" Kevin asked.

"Pretty great lately, I finally have a girl that actually likes me, she gave me her number yesterday, and we had a nice conversation, and you?" answered Larry.

"That's nice, as for me, I've had better days." Kevin replied.

"What do you mean?" asked Larry.

"Well, ever since I've believe in this story none of my friends have wanted to talk to me or my mother so I've grown into and enjoyment of pain, all these piercings and tattoos I have gotten within the last two weeks." responded Kevin.

"Oh well I'm sorry to hear that." Larry said patting Kevin's shoulder.

"Yeah and now people look at me like I'm supposedly a no good punk they don't even know who I really am." Kevin replied.

"I haven't found anything wrong with you; you seem like a cool guy, people just stereotype everyone very quickly these days." responded Larry.

"Thanks, it's nice to know I have someone I can talk to, besides just my mom it makes me feel a lot less lonely." Kevin said with a smile on his face.

"The light doesn't seem to want to show up today, and I've only got five minutes left, so I better go." Larry replied.

"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea." Kevin agreed.

Larry walked to the school thinking of all this new information he had just learned. As he was walking though he turned around looking at the field he had just came from and noticed that the black light had appeared so he ran back to the field as fast as he could.

When he made it there he was too late. "Kevin?" Larry exclaimed. "Kevin are you there?" but it was no use Kevin had been mauled to death and was no longer there. "The dog strikes again." Larry said as he punched the ground hard, but knowing how little time he had before school started he decided he needed to go and tell Mrs. Able about her son.

On his way to school he swore he saw the dog running behind the buildings across the street but he rubbed his eyes and it was no longer there.

As he walked into the school about a minute later he saw a big group of students out in the courtyard. "Strange," he said to himself as he saw Eric he ran over to him and asked him, "What happened? Why is everyone in the courtyard?"

"It's Mrs. Able." Eric replied.

Larry looked around wondering what had happened, he figured the dog had killed her so he moved forward through the crowd of people and noticed there was nothing there. He then turned around and ran back to Eric, "You said Mrs. Able, what wrong with her?"

"She's disappeared." answered Eric.


	6. A Teacher's Disappearance

**Chapter 6**

_A Teacher's Disappearance_

"Are you serious?" asked Larry.

"Yeah man," Eric began, "She hasn't been seen since this morning."

"That's crazy." Larry replied.

Troy came around the corner, "Hey dudes this is seriously whack."

"It is," Larry said, "I can't believe it she seemed to be perfectly well yesterday and now, she's gone."

Shyann ran up to Eric and gave him hug, "Hey sweetie, I'm scared."

Eric looked frightened as well, "It's okay honey I would never let anything happen to you."

"I know you wouldn't let anything happen to me Eric, but this is still scary." Shyann said as tears started falling down her face.

"Don't cry, please" Eric began "Nothing is going to happen to you, not while I'm around you have nothing to worry about."

"I love you!" Shyann said while jumping into his arms. She was still crying but was feeling a little better knowing that her boyfriend was protecting her.

"I love you too!" Eric said holding her tight. They just stood there holding each other as if they hadn't seen each other in years.

"Hey Larry!" someone shouted across the courtyard. Larry could recognize that voice anywhere as Marie ran up to him.

"Hey, are you okay?" Larry asked.

"Yeah I'm doing pretty well except for the fact that one of my favorite teachers is now missing." Marie answered.

"Yeah it's just awful; I hate how these things work out sometimes." Larry responded.

"Yeah you are right, but I need to talk to you in private ... over there." Marie said pointing toward the hallway.

They walked over to the empty hallway away from the crowd, "You're still going to church tonight right?" Larry said.

"Of course, but I have to talk to you about something. Thank you for talking to me last night after the first couple hours I was worried if you were going to call or not." Marie replied.

"Definitely I told you I would; I would never lie to you." Larry responded.

"Yeah you did tell me you would, it's nice to meet someone who is honest to me, but anyways you know how you said you hate how things work out sometimes. Well I think it's the complete opposite with you I loved how these things worked out with meeting you in everything." Marie said as she smiled at him.

"Thank you, you have no idea how much that means to me. Do you really mean that? Larry asked.

Marie looked deep into his, "Yes, I do."

Larry looked deep back into her eyes and grabbed her other hand. He got a fuzzy feeling in his stomach and gave her a kiss right on the lips, and she kissed him back. They stood there like that for a few seconds when Troy came around the corner, "Hey dude I thought you said you two were just talking, I didn't know you were going out yet."

"We aren't yet." Larry replied, He looked back into her eyes and whispered in her ear, "Will you go out with me?"

"Yes, definitely," Marie replied, "I usually wouldn't go out with someone so quickly, but there's something different about you that makes me feel safe."

"That makes me happy." Larry responded.

"Well now you do Lare," Troy began, "That's just awesome man, I'm happy for you."

"Yeah, oh Marie this is Troy, we've been friends since fifth grade." Larry said.

"Hi Troy, "I'm Marie." Marie said as she shook Troy's hand.

"Yeah Larry has told me a bit about you, you have yourself a good guy right here." Troy replied.

"I think you're right." Marie said as she went over to Larry and gave him a peck on the lips.

The bell rang and they went off to their classes, "Well which way do you have to go?" Larry asked Marie.

"I have to go that way." Marie said pointing to the left.

"Oh well I have to go this way," Larry pointed to the right, "So I'll see you in class later." he said while giving her one last kiss before class.

The rest of the day Larry couldn't think about his work all he could do was think about Marie and how she had just made him feel. He almost completely forgot about Kevin and Mrs. Able, as he found himself doodling Marie's name on his work in class.

Mr. Smith came looking over Larry's shoulder, "Larry are you paying attention?" Larry didn't look "Larry!" he shouted.

Larry looked up "Oh yeah, I'm sorry sir I'm not completely with it today."

"Yeah, I can see that," said Mr. Smith, "Well finish your work Larry."

"Yes sir." Larry replied.

Larry's day turned out to pretty much be the usual until lunch time. Now he knew he had lunch with Marie so they could hang out. So he hung out with Larry, Eric, Shyann, Troy and Johnny.

The bell rang signaling the end of lunch so Larry and Marie walked to class together. They had a pretty fun day together in English, they had a group project to draw pictures to show what best represents their interests; Larry and Marie were partners.

At the end Larry and Marie presented their assignment to the class. "Very good, you two have some good drawing skills." Mrs. Slowth said.

The bell rang and Larry and Marie walked out together, "Well Larry, I'll see you later."

"Yeah, I'll see you then." Larry said before they kissed and then walked to their classes. Larry's next class was alright, but the one he was curious about was the one after that. He couldn't believe that on only his second day of high school he wouldn't be able to see Mrs. Able.

Larry walked into the class to see what he found to be the most likely substitute teacher. "Kevin, Kevin Able?"


	7. Concern Shown

**Chapter 7**

_Concern Shown_

"Hey Larry." Kevin said still crying.

"Are you okay?" asked Larry.

"Not at all," Kevin began, "she was my mom, the only person in the world I truly loved and could trust with anything."

"You can trust me; would you like to talk to me about it?" Larry replied.

"Why bother? It's not like anything I ever said will ever bring her back, so it's really no use." Kevin responded.

"Don't say that, of course it can be of use, just knowing you have friends you can talk to about your problems can relieve your stress a bit because knowing you have friends who care about you and your dilemmas should help." Larry answered.

"Okay if you insist, well my mom has been there for me from the get go, she would read my bedtime stories to me when I was young, and she is the only person who has ever shown me love. My dad ran out on me and my mom when I was only two years old, he said he would come back but he never did, so it's just been me and her for about twenty years now. I remember it just like it was yesterday she would do anything for me, she had to home school me because she couldn't afford to keep up with food, and other necessities with me in school. The teachers always let her borrow their books because they cared for her so much. There are just so many things I wish I could change." Kevin replied.

"What would you like to change?" Larry asked.

"Just that I was nicer to her, just like with all parent/child relationships we had our fair bit of arguments and I always knew when I was wrong about arguing which was basically all the time, and it just saddens me to know I did that." Kevin responded.

"I can understand you there it's nothing to feel bad about though, we all have arguments from time to time, and I've noticed most of the time it's over something completely stupid." Larry replied.

"That's true, there's so much I wish I could tell her though, I just want her to know how much I love her." Kevin said back.

"She knows how much you love her, I understand how hard it must be to not be able to tell her though, and she hasn't been found or anything isn't it possible that she may have some reason she didn't show up today and didn't get to contact you." Larry said patting Kevin's shoulder.

"I suppose you could be right, and you know what this class is almost over I know some places she may be hiding out, so I'm going to go check them, I'll let you know how everything goes." Kevin replied.

"Alright Kevin take care, hope everything turns out okay." Larry responded.

The bell rang and he was off to meet Marie in front of the cafeteria.

"Hey Marie." Larry said as he made it to Marie.

"Hey Larry." replied Marie.

"So are you ready to go?" Larry asked.

"Most definitely I've been waiting for this all day." Marie replied. They walked out the schoolyard when Marie noticed Larry had a sad look in his eyes. "What's wrong?" she asked.

"Oh, it's nothing." Larry replied.

"No it's not nothing Larry; I can see that look in your eyes talk to me about it." Marie said.

"It's about Mrs. Able and her son, I had a talk with him in seventh period, and he seemed really depressed I'm just worried about him." Larry responded.

"Oh I'm sorry sweetie, it's okay, would you like to talk about it?" Marie asked.

"Not really I just want to try and forget about it for now; maybe you can tell me that speech you gave in class." Larry replied.

She giggled a little, "Okay, well I'm thirteen years old and almost fourteen, and I have been going to church since I was born, I've missed maybe two or three services my entire life. I'm a really loving and honest person, and really that's all I said."

"Wow it seemed longer in class." Larry responded.

"That's probably because someone wasn't paying attention." Marie laughed.

"You're right; they say time ceases to exist when you stare into the eyes of someone you admire." Larry replied with a smile.

"Is that what you called it yesterday, admiring?" Marie giggled.

"Yeah, I already care about you so much it's hard to believe how much after just a day of knowing you." Larry replied.

"I feel the same way we haven't really even talked about our interests or anything, it's crazy, I just could tell you were a nice guy." Marie responded.

"I know what you mean; I could tell you were a nice girl too." Larry smiled.

"So maybe we can ask each other some questions?" Marie suggested.

"Yeah, that could be fun." Larry replied.

"Okay, you first." Marie said.

"Alright, favorite music genre, singer and band?" Larry asked.

"I am really into the rock style but I mix it up every now and then, favorite singer would have to be Phil Collins, band would be Pillar, and you?" Marie replied.

"I'm also too into the rock style, and I like Phil Collins as well, as for my favorite band I would have to say Linkin Park." Larry responded.

"I guess that explains your backpack, okay favorite TV Show?" Marie asked.

"I really love That 70s' Show, what about you?" Larry answered.

"I love that show too, but my favorite would have to be Futurama." Marie replied.

"Wow I love that show." Larry responded.

"We will get along well then, alright your turn again." Marie said with a giggle.

"Your favorite movie?" Larry asked.

"Definitely the Lion King, I love Disney." Marie answered.

"Me too, my favorite movie would have to be Sweeney Todd: Demon Barber of Fleet Street." Larry replied.

"No way, I loved that movie; I really like musicals too though." Marie responded.

"I'm not hugely into musicals, but I can watch them." Larry said as he walked closer to Marie and grabbed her hand.

"Yeah that's alright, well here's my house, do you think you can remember where it is?" Marie asked.

"Definitely, I've been down this road many times." The sign for the road said Crawford Avenue. Her house was a beautiful shade of baby blue, it was a little small but very nice.

"So would you like to come in and meet my mom?" Marie asked.

"I don't know if I should right now, I told my mom I would just be taking you home." Larry answered.

"Well okay we can meet each other's parents some other time then." Marie replied.

"Okay sure thing." Larry said and then they gave each other a kiss goodbye and Larry walked home.

.... Three Hours Later ....

Larry was sitting in his room when he saw that black light show up again, it was in the same field as the one he was in earlier that day. He grabbed his shoes and ran out to where the light was shining. When Larry made it, he found a very grueling sight. Kevin was laid out on the ground bleeding from his head and to his left was the one thing Larry had come to fear the most, the dog. He finally had a good look at him and noticed it wasn't a dog at all, it was a black wolf, his fur was scruffy and blood was pouring out of his mouth.

"Hello Larry," the dog began to speak in creepy and raspy whisper like voice, "Looks like your friend isn't going anywhere anytime soon wouldn't you say?"

"What did you do to him?" Larry yelled.

"What makes you think I did this?" the wolf asked.

"I'm not stupid." Larry replied as he leapt at the dog but right before he reached him a dark fog appeared and when it was gone the dog was no longer there.

A sound came from the disappearing fog, "I'm not going to kill you Larry, not yet."

"What just happened?" Larry asked not expecting an answer.

"He apparated," Kevin began as he stood up and cleared the blood off his face, "It's an old wizard trick as is this fake blood that was on my forehead, I put it on my head when I had seen he killed a lady across the street when I looked over, he hadn't messed with me at all, but then he saw me in the distance, so he apparated with the lady and I knew he would come back for me so I put it on my face I had no idea you would show up, but the dog won't attack someone who is already bleeding because he knows that someone else already got to them and would rather take out a greater foe, the only way he would do it in the past if the Reaper summoned him to."

"Wait, so then that means that you are a ..." Larry couldn't get the last word out.

"You mean a wizard? Yes, I am Larry, and my mom she is a witch, we are a smart bunch us wizards and witches." Kevin replied.

"I can tell, to be able to think to do what you did under such short notice, so how did you become one?" Larry asked.

"Well no one really knows how it happens it usually comes through heredity, but it's rare to see someone actually learn, I could also teach you but the chances it would work are one in a million." Kevin replied.

"Oh that's interesting, and cool, you don't superpowers or anything like that too do you?" Larry responded.

"Nope, just magic I could try to teach you sometime." Kevin said back.

"That would be cool, I can always try." Larry replied.

"Yes, hey what is that on the ground over there just to the side of where the dog apparated?" Kevin asked.

Larry looked behind him and there was a small silver rectangle shape on the ground and walked up to it, "It looks like a DVD."

"Read the label to me." Kevin demanded. Larry looked the case and saw a note on it.

To Larry and Kevin

Mrs. Able's Destiny

Put in a DVD Player.

"We don't have a DVD player here; we need to find a place that has one so we can watch it." Larry said.

Kevin waved his finger at the ground and a cordless TV, and DVD player popped up out of nowhere, "There put it in." Kevin replied.

Larry put the DVD in the player and pressed play. The DVD started with a little static and went to a video of the wolf that was just there. "Well I guess you wanted to see what this DVD about right?" The wolf was saying. "Well this is her." The dog turned the screen over to Mrs. Able.

Larry and Kevin both gasped when they saw her, and Larry spoke "She ... She's dead!"


	8. Eerie Times

**Chapter 8**

_Eerie Times_

The video showed a dark area with purple fog, the wolf was standing in the middle of the screen with Mrs. Able lying against a wall beside him. She had lost the sweet look on her face that Larry had always recognized her by; the blood was flowing down every inch of her body, so much that you could barely tell it was her.

"You Bastard," Kevin shouted, "I'll kill you!" Kevin tried to leap at the screen, but Larry grabbed him.

"What do you think you are doing?" Larry asked, "Don't you think that's what he wants you to do?"

"I don't care Larry let go of me!" Kevin screamed.

"Just listen to me." Larry replied.

"No Larry, he killed my mother, so I'm going to kill him." Kevin responded.

"Kevin, sit down! We will give him some payback but we need to come up with a plan first, then we can take him down together." Larry said continuing to try and calm Kevin down.

"Alright Larry." Kevin said while finally sitting down.

The dog spoke from the TV again, "You were right to listen to your friend Kevin, this tape had a tiny bomb inside of it enough to blow you to smithereens without harming Larry at all, and it was ready to go off if you touched the TV."

"Ugh, I guess I owe you one, thanks Larry." Kevin said.

"Don't mention it; I'm just glad that you listened." Larry replied.

"I guess I may finally have a real friend I can trust now." Kevin responded.

"Yeah you sure do, and I have some other friends who would be more than willing to help you out too." Larry said with a smile.

"Thanks, I would like to meet them one day." Kevin insisted.

"No problem, as for the plan maybe you can show me some of those wizarding tricks, so when the time comes I can actually be of use?" asked Larry.

"I can try, but like I said Larry, the chances are only one in a million that it will work." Kevin answered.

"I'm willing to give it a shot if you are." Larry replied.

"Okay if you say so." Kevin waved his finger and a large blue dome enclosed the area, he waved his finger once more and some targets came up from the ground in various locations. "We don't have long it's almost six-thirty already and I'm sure you mom wants you home soon."

"You are right we only have about a half an hour to try it out today." Larry responded.

"Okay the first thing I have to teach you is how to shoot with your finger, when you shot you will send a burst of wind toward the area you are aiming at and if it will be stronger depending on how well you do it, the center of the wind stream will feel like a nail stabbing if you were to get hit by it." Kevin flicked his finger behind him and one of the targets moved about three feet backwards, there was a dent in the bulls eye.

"Wow, great shot." Larry complimented.

"Thanks, the trick for a normal person to be able to learn how to do it is to possess extreme will and determination, you must clear your mind of any obstacle that can hinder your results, visualize yourself hitting one of the targets and point in that area." Kevin replied.

Larry flicked his finger in front of him toward the closest target, but nothing happened, "Oh darn it, it didn't work." he said.

"I didn't expect it to, especially not on your first try, now try again and believe that you can do it." Kevin responded.

Larry flicked his finger at the target again, and still nothing happened, "Why isn't it working?"

"Patience Larry, your will power is just not strong enough; your mind must be preoccupied with something else at the moment. Many people have tried to do this for years and could never get down the simplest spells." Kevin said as Larry tried time and time again, failing each time, until the time came. "It's seven o'clock now you should be getting home, would like to meet here around six again tomorrow?"

"I can't tomorrow; I've already made plans to take my girlfriend to church with me." Larry replied.

"Alright maybe we can meet at six on Thursday then?" Kevin asked.

"That would work, I can meet here at six everyday expect Wednesday and Sunday. On Saturday, I can come at anytime." answered Larry.

"Alright we will come up with a training schedule on Thursday, next time I will bring you a wand, they are much easier to control for beginners." Kevin replied.

"Sounds good, I'll be here and I'll be ready." Larry insisted.

Kevin waved his finger and the targets and the dome disappeared, "You are probably wondering what would happen if somebody were to walk by right?" Kevin asked and Larry nodded. "Well that was special type of Magician's Dome, anyone who walked by would be unable to see or hear anything we were doing, they also wouldn't be able to feel the dome, targets, or us and we wouldn't be able to feel them, in fact, we could be completely oblivious to the outside world and they would be completely oblivious to us."

"Well that's neat," Larry began as he looked up, "Whoa, what's going on?" Larry looked toward the sky, it had now become purple, and a light black fog was everywhere, the sight sent a shiver down Larry's spine.

"This is very freaky, what's going on?" Kevin asked in wonderment.

"You don't know?" Larry replied.

"No I'm just a wizard Larry; I have never seen or heard of anything like this in my life." The way Kevin spoke those words made Larry know he was lying. "Run home Larry, and don't turn around, we will talk later." Kevin apparated, and then Larry went home safely.

Larry ran inside and slammed the door, "Larry what do you think you are doing?" yelled Ms. Pragmer.

"Nothing I'm just getting home." Larry said going toward the stairs, as they started yelling back and forth.

"No, you tell me what's going on right now, why were you out, and why where you not home sooner? Especially with the sky the way it is." Ms. Pragmer asked.

"I was hanging out with Kevin at the library." Larry lied.

"I don't know this Kevin, who is he?" Ms. Pragmer replied.

"That clerk that we met at Spencers, I saw him on the way home from school yesterday and we talked a bit and decided to hang out today, I left at seven so we had just noticed the weather, otherwise I would have been home sooner, it was really nasty looking so I ran all the way home and slammed the door when I got here." answered Larry.

"That explains that, but why were you hanging out with him? I never said you could, why didn't you ask me?" Ms. Pragmer responded.

"If you must know mother, his mother died today and he needed someone to talk to, now if you don't mind I'm going to my room." Larry said like a smartass.

Ms. Pragmer feeling sad sat down in one of the kitchen chairs and laid her head down in her arms.

Larry ran up to his room, "What was all that screaming about?" Eric asked.

"Well you obviously must not have noticed, but I slammed the door on the way inside, and she kept screaming, asking me questions like [Where were you?] and [Why weren't you home sooner?]" Larry replied in a calmer, but still loud voice.

"So ... Where were you, and why weren't you home sooner? I was worried, about how you decided to leave while I was taking a shower." Eric replied.

"Well don't be worried, I was just hanging with Kevin at the field." Larry answered sitting down on his bed.

"That's not the whole story, and why are you yelling at me? What's wrong?" Eric asked.

"Fine, if it's that important to you, I'll tell you. The black light showed up again in that field, and when I ran over there the dog, which I found out is actually a wolf, showed up and started threatening to kill me." Larry replied.

"Are you serious? That is just ... awful." responded Eric.

"Yes it was, and there's something else I need to tell you too. Remember the other night when told me about the wolf and how he spoke to you and I asked if you were sure about it?" Larry asked.

"Yes, why do you ask?" Eric replied.

"Well because, the moment you said told me that, I thought you had gone completely mental and up until about an hour ago when I heard him myself, I still believed you had gone crazy. And that's not all that's wrong with me, ever since you told me about that wolf, I've kept hearing voices in my head telling me that he's going to kill me, and that I'd be better off dead. It's been driving me insane; I just don't know what to do anymore my whole life is just taking a turn for the worst lately. I keep acting so carefree around everyone at school, even around my own girlfriend because I have been and denial and I don't want anyone to worry about me." Larry responded.

"Wow, I am sorry about all that, I had no idea, why didn't you tell me you thought I was crazy, when I told you about the wolf?" asked Eric.

"It should be obvious why I didn't, I didn't want to cause you any extra stress, your mom and dad had already died and I figured it a real blow to you to tell you that, especially after what you have gone through in the last couple weeks. You are my best friend; I just couldn't do that to you." Larry answered.

"Thanks Larry, I understand why now." Eric began to cry, "The truth is I've been bottling up my feelings since my Dad died as well. Ever since then I've been acting like I'm happy all the time, which is a huge lie. I have been in denial about the fact that they are both gone forever."

"I guess we've both been lying to ourselves." Larry replied.

"And everyone around us, let's promise not to keep things from each other anymore, even if we aren't comfortable talking to people at school, we should at least be able to speak about these things to amongst ourselves." responded Eric.

"I promise too, after all we need someone to talk to and who better than each other?" Larry asked.

"The world is changing out there, I can feel it, the purple skies, the light black fog; this is just the beginning of bad things to come." Eric replied looking out the window.

"I know, there's a rather eerie feeling in the atmosphere." Larry said as he looked out the window as well.

"Yeah, hey Larry it's getting on nine o'clock, we should be getting some sleep now." Eric replied.

"Yeah we should thanks for everything, Eric." Larry said with a smile.

"You're welcome, thank you too, Larry." Eric smiled back

They both slept peacefully that night, they had pleasant dreams about the good things they had left in their lives.

...

The alarm clock rang in the morning and then went off to school again. Still neither of them were able to speak to their friends about what they had spoke about to each other the night before, both acting as though everything was fine, though they still had painful thoughts in their minds. They kept telling themselves that they didn't want anyone to worry about them. When the final bell rang, Larry and Eric both gave their girlfriends goodbye kisses, and Marie reminded Larry about picking her up later for church.

... Later that day ...

"Hey son, are you two ready for church?" Ms. Pragmer yelled up the stairs.

"Yes mother, just got to get our shoes on, and we'll be right down." Larry replied.

"Okay, just wanting to remind you we need to get going soon, so you can show me where your girlfriend lives." Ms. Pragmer responded.

"Alright, we are coming right now." Larry insisted.

They walked down the stairs and were ready to go. The three of them all walked out to the car, put on their seat belts, and went to pick up Marie. Larry showed her the way to go. When they arrived at her house Larry went up and knocked on her front door.

"Hello Larry," Marie said opening the door, "I'm all ready to go."

They heard her mom speaking, "Have fun sweetie."

Marie was wearing a gorgeous, sparkling red dress, "I hope this isn't too much." she said showing him her dress.

"No, not at all, it's perfect!" Larry exclaimed.

They walked out to the car and Larry opened her door for her, "Well that's sweet of you." she said cheerfully.

"Larry you have to sit up front, you're not allowed to sit back there with her." Mrs. Pragmer reminded him when he tried to sit beside her.

"Alright mom." Larry replied while coming over to the front passenger seat, and they rode off to the church. The sky was still purple, with light black fog in the air, and it had been that way since the night before. The fog could easily be seen through so Ms. Pragmer had no problem driving.

They arrived at the church to an empty parking lot. "Well this is strange," Ms. Pragmer said, "Let's go on in, we are fifteen minutes early, maybe no one has arrived yet."

When they got up to the front door they heard an organ playing, "That's odd. Why is the organ going if no one's here?" Larry asked.

Ms. Pragmer opened the door to the church, when they walked in all the lights were off except for the one on the main stage where the organ was. They looked up toward it and saw mysterious man in a black-hooded trench coat.

The man then stopped playing, stood up, and said five words, "At last, you have arrived."


	9. A Scary Story

**Chapter 9**

_A Scary Story_

"Stand back." Larry said.

A light came on, on the left side of the room revealing the seats and the windows. A man was sitting in one of the chairs playing the organ on the stage.

"It's okay Larry, this is my father, Daniel Able; I finally found my father Larry." Kevin said while getting out his seat and walking in to the aisle as Mr. Able stopped playing.

"Oh, I'm sorry Kevin, it's just, I've never seen him. Adding to that the fact, he is wearing a trench coat and that would frighten most people." Larry explained.

"It's no problem, you've never met my father." as Kevin spoke Ms. Pragmer, Eric, and Marie all disappeared.

"Hey what happened to them?" Larry asked pointing toward where the three were standing.

"I thought it would be obvious to you, Larry. It's just like the field we were in earlier, you are inside one of our magical domes." answered Kevin.

"But how did I get in here?" Larry responded, "I didn't even see it."

"What you think blue domes are the only colored domes wizards can create?" Kevin asked walking toward Larry.

"No, just the only color I've seen, so this is a clear dome then? Why did you need a clear dome?" Larry replied in confusion.

The man in the trench coat started walking toward Larry, "Because Larry," Mr. Able began, "If we would've used a regular color the others in your vehicle would've been scared. Also if we happened to catch one of them in the dome by accident they would have really freaked out, duh."

"I guess you are right, but why only me? Why am I here?" Larry asked.

"We didn't want the others here, because we only need to show you what it is we have to show." Kevin began as he and his farther stopped walking and was now just a couple feet in front of Larry. "We have images from the past that we need to you to look at."

"Alright, well I'm ready to see these images, when are we going?" Larry asked with excitement.

"Now," Mr. Able began while walking towards the stage, "Follow me."

Larry and Kevin followed Mr. Able up the stage. Mr. Able raised his arm at the organ and a swirling purple, blue and green vortex appeared.

"Go inside Larry." Mr. Able demanded.

"Right." Larry said walking towards the vortex.

Larry stopped in front of the vortex, "What's wrong?" Kevin asked.

"You two aren't coming?" Larry replied.

"This particular type of vortex can only contain one person at a time, and these memories are more important for you to see then either of us. Only you can go." with those words from Mr. Able, Larry nodded.

He walked into the vortex and was sent spiraling through nothingness. There was black in all directions around him.

Larry started screaming, but stopped when images started appearing. Next thing he knew, he was in a restaurant sitting across from a guy who looked exactly like him, "Henry dear, the usual?" asked the waitress.

"Yes, Annabelle that would be lovely." replied the guy across from Larry now introduced as Henry.

Just then Larry realized who they were, "These are my parents." he said to himself.

Mrs. Pragmer now known as Annabelle was even more beautiful at sixteen than she was at thirty-two. Her hair was long and brown, she was about four-foot-eleven and her uniform was a green dress, which had a white apron over it, which had a black nametag on it that read "Anna". She came back with a plate of eggs and hash browns.

"My Favorite." Henry said looking at his plate.

"Only the best for you honey." Annabelle replied.

Larry noticed there was a newspaper on the table in front of him with the date reading, August 2nd, 1991. He saw the main headline next, "Another man found dead!" Larry said to himself.

Larry began skimming over the article, reading its contents:

Mr. Theodore Stautz, Age 36, was found dead in his home

Today by his bed. He was brutally ripped open, and had cuts

On the little pieces of flesh that he had remaining. His wife,

Hariet Stautz, Age 35, also died just last week, and was in

Similar condition when she was found …

Story continued on Page 2A

Larry went to turn the page, but the newspaper wouldn't even let him touch it, "That must have been Eric's grandparents." Larry said.

Henry was just finishing his breakfast when Larry lifted his head up. Henry seemed to be looking right at Larry, but turned his eyes quickly when Annabelle came over to their table. "I'm finished Anna, how much do I owe?" Henry asked.

"The bill is five dollars and six cents." Annabelle replied.

"Alright well here's ten dollars and six cents, keep the change." Henry said with a smile on his face.

"Thank you!" Annabelle said as she smiled back. At that moment the skies outside turned purple and a light black fog began to fill the air, "What's this Henry?"

"I don't know," Henry began, "Maybe we should check it out." he continued and Annabelle nodded in agreement.

Henry and Annabelle ran out through the door and Larry followed. They ran through an open field and out to the cemetery the sign read "Hel's Graveyard". They continued walking through the cemetery a little way where there was a man lying on the ground ripped apart. A dark black fog appeared a few yards in front of them as The Reaper apparated, "You did this," Henry began, "You killed my good friend."

"Lies," The Reaper began in his usual sickly voice, "All you speak is lies."

"Oh yeah, well who else besides you has a heart cold enough to brutally dismember someone like this." yelled Henry.

"How about him?" The Reaper pointed toward the ground beside him where a black wolf appeared.

Sweat poured down Henry and Annabelle's brows at the site of the newcomer, "Let me kill them master, let me kill them." The wolf said is his usual creepy, raspy voice.

"No we need these two for later, they will prove very useful." The Reaper replied.

With those words the scenery turned to pure black, and when the next image appeared Larry was in a place he recognized very well, his living room. The door flung open as a man ran in to the house.

"Henry honey, what's wrong?" asked Annabelle as she ran down the stairs. The calendar now read: August 2nd, 1994.

"This is exactly a day after the last memory, and they both look exactly the same." Larry stated, and then he gasped, "I should be a year old at this time."

As if he had said a magic word a baby woke up underneath a blanket on the couch. The walls of the house were a light brown just as it was in his time, and the light brown carpet was also the same.

"Henry, did you hear me, what's wrong?" Annabelle repeated herself.

"The Reaper, I ran in to him on the way home and he revealed himself to me." Henry stated.

"Well who is he?" Annabelle asked with concern.

Henry ran in to the living room grabbed baby Larry and gave him to Annabelle. Afterwards he ran upstairs and came back down with an aluminum baseball bat, "Let's go." he demanded.

Henry and Annabelle both ran out the door, Annabelle holding baby Larry. Before the door could close Larry followed them out. They ran and ran as Henry and Annabelle conversed.

"So what's going on?" Annabelle asked yet again.

"The Reaper has threatened to kill Larry if we are not at the cemetery by seven." Henry answered.

"I see, but why couldn't me and Larry stay if that's the case?" Annabelle asked with fear.

"As I said, WE need to be there, he demanded it, and I can't leave Larry at home by himself." Henry replied.

"We could've left him with someone." Annabelle insisted.

"He's safer with us, plus there wasn't enough time, plus everyone is on vacation." Henry said as they reached the cemetery, "We made it, and with a minute to spare."

The skies were still purple and the light black fog was still in the air as the Reaper apparated in front of them. "Why hello there, Mr. Pragmer, did you miss me?" The Reaper asked.

"No, I didn't," Henry began, "And I think it's about time that I shut you up for good."

"Well, that's not very nice; I'm guessing that you are planning on shutting me up with that bat? You know since you can't use your magic on this date." The Reaper replied.

"Magic," Larry said to himself, "If my father was able to use magic, then I should be able to as well."

"Why else would I bring a bat instead of using magic?" Henry asked.

The Reaper jumped towards Henry as Annabelle took baby Larry over to a nearby tombstone. The Reaper and Henry exchanged blows as the Reaper cut Henry across the skull with his scythe, Annabelle gasped.

The Reaper then said something rather odd, that Larry couldn't understand the meaning of, "The end is the beginning, and the beginning is the end."

"What do you mean by that, Ret?" Henry asked.

"How dare you speak my real name? You are not worthy." The Reaper shouted.

The Reaper began to pull off the head of his cloak, while Annabelle began to speak, "Then you are …"

With those words the scenery turned to pure black, and the next thing Larry knew he was laying on the church stage beside Kevin and Mr. Able.

"Larry," Kevin exclaimed, "What did you think?"

"I don't even know where to begin." Larry answered.

"Do you know who he is, or what that phrase meant?" asked Mr. Able.

"All I know is his name is Ret, and what phrase?" Larry replied.

"The end is the beginning, and the beginning is the end." Mr. Able answered.

"No, no idea." Larry said as he stood up and brushed himself off.

"Just as I figured," Kevin said, "The only person who knows who Ret is Annabelle Pragmer, and she won't tell anybody."

"I'm her son, I'm sure she'd tell me." Larry said.

"Well then ask her when you get home." Kevin demanded.

"Alright." with that word the Able's apparated as the dome opened and Larry was sitting between Eric and his mother.

The church was in prayer so he closed his eyes, "Amen!" the church members spoke together.

Larry, Mrs. Able, Eric, and Marie all walked out the door and got in the car. "Lovely sermon, don't you think so Larry?" Mrs. Pragmer asked.

"Ooh, yes," Larry replied, "Just wonderful."

"Are you alright Larry?" Marie asked.

"Yes, of course, why do you ask?" Larry answered.

"Just seems like something is troubling you that's all." Marie replied.

They rode off to take Marie home, "Why does it seem like that?" Larry asked.

"Don't know, it just does." Marie answered.

No one else spoke the rest of the time until they got to Marie's house. "Well, we'll see you later Marie." insisted Mrs. Pragmer.

"Yes, Mrs. Pragmer." Marie said while getting out of the car, "Thanks for bringing me along with y'all."

Larry and Eric both were staring off in to space the rest of the way to the Pragmer house.

"Well, that was fun." Eric said getting out of the car.

After Eric's door was closed Larry told his mom he needed to talk to her alone.

"What is it, hun?" Mrs. Pragmer asked.

"Do you know anyone named Ret?" Larry replied.

Appearing astonished by the question Mrs. Pragmer blurted out, "Absolutely not, no way, never heard the name, you should go to bed."

By her tone Larry could tell that he shouldn't say anything else about Ret. And so he did as she said, he went to his room and went to sleep, and so did Eric.

The next afternoon Larry met Kevin at the field, "So did she tell you?" Kevin asked.

"No, she was almost enraged by my asking," Larry replied, "I can try again if you like."

"It will return the same results, the matter at hand now is to teach you magic." Kevin replied. Kevin gave Larry a wand as to practice with.

Over the next six months nothing changed, Larry would meet up with Kevin to practice his magic every day except for Wednesday and Sunday and still with no progress. The murders had completely stopped as well.

Finally one day Larry managed a spell as the target he pointed at went backwards, "You've done it Larry, the rest of the lessons are easy compared to this." Kevin stated.

"Sweet," Larry began, "Just in time too, it's seven o'clock now, well then we will meet back tomorrow at the usual time."

"Right Larry." Kevin replied while retracting the dome.

Larry went home and told Eric, and his mom he was at the library again, and then he and Eric both went to sleep in their separate beds.

The next day Larry was waiting anxiously in his seventh period class. He knew today was the day they would finally be getting a new permanent drama teacher to replace Mrs. Able. The door opened and a tall bald man in a black suit entered the room.

"Hello, my name is, Mister Shallowgrove." said the teacher.


	10. Mister Shallowgrove

**Chapter 10**

_Mister Shallowgrove_

"Mister Shallowgrove it is? What is the lesson plan for today?" Clarise asked.

"Improvisation" Mr. Shallowgrove began, "Mainly because I was too lazy to come up with anything else."

"Improv? Seems to me like you just wanted an easy way to start off the class." said a boy in the back of the room.

"Well would you look at this, a smartass, let's see here, you must be Ron Lightley, am I correct?" Mr. Shallowgrove asked walking towards the boy.

"Yes, that is my name, although I don't really appreciate being called a smartass." Ron replied. Ron was a skinny boy, about five-foot-three and one hundred pounds; he has blonde surfer style hair, and blue eyes. On this day, he is wearing a yellow Hollister shirt and blue jeans chewing on a toothpick.

"Well, whatever name I choose for you is the name you will get." Mr. Shallowgrove responded.

"Yeah, I don't think that is going to happen." Ron replied with a smirk on his face.

"Actually, I'm pretty sure it will unless you want to spend the next three days at in-school suspension. Would you like that instead?" Mr. Shallowgrove asked.

"I'm pretty sure I could care less where I am, let me check my calendar. Yeah, I'm free those days, go ahead." Ron said smartly.

"If that's what you desire, you will have your wish." Mr. Shallowgrove pulled a paper and began writing on it. After finishing, he walked over to Ron with the paper, "Sign this."

Ron pulled out his pen and signed his name on the paper, "I think you should do something about Larry too, he's been whispering about how cruel you are and laughing it off with his friends this whole time." Ron lied.

"Funny, the only lips I have seen moving are your own, now would you like to continue showing off in which case I can throw you out of class or would you like to shut up and do the easy lesson?" Mr. Shallowgrove asked.

Ron stood up and walked out of the room, "I don't have time for this kiddy crap, see you in four school days teacher."

After Ron's departure, Mr. Shallowgrove began, "Now that the distraction is out of the class, I can separate all of you into groups of three." Mr. Shallowgrove began calling out groups until the final one was named, "Larry Pragmer, Clarise Johnson and Sora Whitmayer."

Sora was a rather tall dude; he was six-foot-three and two hundred and forty pounds and captain of the high school football team. He was wearing a blue jersey which said "#1" on it and black jeans. "So, I'm stuck with you two? This could be interesting."

"What do you mean interesting?" Clarise asked bluntly.

"Nothing, just saying you two are probably the best students in the class and might be able to help me get better." Sora replied.

"Oh well, thank you." Clarise said back.

"So Mr. Shallowgrove, what exact subject are we improving on?" Larry asked.

The teacher came around with a hat, "Why whatever you pull out, figure this could make things more interesting at random."

Larry pulled out the paper for his group, "This one is blank."

"Then if you desire you are free to go now, if you want to make up your own improve and present it within the next two weeks it will be considered extra credit." Mr. Shallowgrove responded.

"So, what do you guys think? I say go for the extra credit, this could be fun." Larry asked.

They all three agreed to work on the extra credit assignment and tried to come up with ideas for a topic.

"That idea works for me, what do you think Clarise?" Larry asked.

"I like it, you are pretty good with coming up with topics Sora." Clarise responded.

"Thank you, should we go ahead and do it or wait a little bit?" Sora asked them both.

As the bell was close to sounding they decided it would be best to hold off on doing it until a later day. They said their goodbyes and left the classroom.

"Larry, may I speak with you for a minute?" Mr. Shallowgrove asked as he exited the room.

"Can I come right back? I usually meet my girlfriend after class." Larry responded.

"Sure thing, don't want to infringe on that, I will be in the classroom waiting." Mr. Shallowgrove said politely.

"Alright," Larry replied before going out of the halls to meet Marie.

Marie stretched out her arms to hug Larry when he got there, "I missed you. How was your day?"

"It was okay, just a regular day we have an interesting new drama teacher; he seems like a cool guy. How about yours?" Larry asked.

"Basically, the same, just you know, a day." Marie replied, "So how did it feel to finish your training with Kevin?"

"It was nice, I'm sure there will be a lot more to learn, but at least I have the strength to keep you, my friends, and my mother safe now." Larry said with a smile.

"Yes, that is definitely a good thing to be able to do." Marie said before lightly kissing him.

"Indeed, I won't be riding the bus home; I have to go speak with my teacher before I go home." Larry stated.

"Oh okay, would you like me to wait for you?" Marie replied.

"Nah, go on home, I will call you when I get to mine." Larry smiled.

"Alright, I love you Larry!" Marie said kissing him one more time.

"Love you too Marie." Larry replied after they finished.

They said their goodbyes and Marie went to the bus as Larry went back to his drama class. As he walked in the door, Mr. Shallowgrove was sitting at his desk rummaging through some papers. "Larry, glad to see you, how was your little chat?" Mr. Shallowgrove said with a smile.

"It was very nice, we also have nice chats." Larry answered.

"That's a good thing, anyways as to why I called you here." Mr. Shallowgrove began, "I've heard a lot about the people who have died around you; your father, your friends, your teachers and I wanted to let you know if you ever feel the need I don't mind you coming to me for guidance, I have gone through similar things in my lifetime and I know how hard it can be on you."

"Sure thing, sir, I will remember that, it was a little hard at first and occasionally the thoughts still bug me, but for the most part I try to not think about it anymore." Larry responded.

"That is a good way to go with these things, just remember that you can come chat with me anytime, my door is always open. Well until I have to go home that is." Mr. Shallowgrove laughed, "Also, can you take this In-School Suspension paper to the Office on your way out? I would do it myself, but I'd rather just sit here for awhile."

"Oh okay, I can do that, are you okay?" Larry asked.

"Why do you ask?" Mr. Shallowgrove answered.

"It's just, usually when someone says that they'd rather sit here for awhile there is something wrong with them." Larry replied.

"Oh, it's nothing, nothing I want you to worry about at least." Mr. Shallowgrove said unconvincingly.

"What's the matter?" Larry asked taking a seat in front of Mr. Shallowgrove's desk.

"If you really want to know," Mr. Shallowgrove started off, "My wife was killed just a month before today. That was the reason I left Indiana and came here. It was very strange, people suddenly began disappearing into black fog and the town was being destroyed. I was there when my wife died, there was a black scruffy wolf that attacked her and after he finished her off he disappeared into a black fog with my wife. By the time I noticed the wolf and what he was doing to my wife I didn't have enough time to get to her and the dog never spotted me. I had no idea what to do, I still cannot live a day in peace due the memory of my wife. She was my world, the one part of this Earth I held dear to my heart. The world is changing I can sense it, I heard about you in our town and how this wolf directly focused on anyone you held dear to you and thought we might be able to help each other through our hard times, if you would like that that is."

"That really is a sad story, I'm sorry to hear that about your wife, I would stay and chat a little longer, but my Mom will get worried if I do not come home soon enough. If you like we can schedule a conference after class one of these days and we can speak more." Larry responded with gratitude.

"That would certainly work out well, just give me a date when you think of one and I will be here." Mr. Shallowgrove said thankfully.

"Sure thing, I will speak with my Mom and see what can be done." Larry replied, "Until tomorrow Mr. Shallowgrove."

"See yah Larry, hope everything goes well for you." Mr. Shallowgrove said.

Larry left the classroom as Mr. Shallowgrove sat at his desk holding on to a picture of his wife.

On his walk home from school, Larry felt a strange aura in the air and felt as though the world was about to begin turning for him again. The black fog showed up again in the distance as Larry ran towards it to see what was going on. By the time he reached it, it was too late there was nothing left, but blood and remainders of flesh. Larry began to walk away until he realized the blood was forming letters. Larry moved closely in to see what it was saying and read:

To create bonds a pact of blood shall be made.

Larry confused by this moved further down the road where he looked over and saw more blood on the ground and it read:

A bond with a friend will soon be made.

Larry understanding the message, but not understanding the meaning moved further down to see another message in blood that read:

He will ask and you must accept or else.

Larry now creeped out by this message ran home as fast as he could and walked calmly into the front the door. "Hello mother, how was your day?" He turned to where his mother would normally cook and saw nothing as the room began to shake and he was pulled back in total darkness.

"The day will come Larry when you must make a fateful decision. Would you risk your life for those dear to you? Would you care too much about your own safety? The time will come, I will see you soon." He heard a voice say as the blackness left and he was standing where he was originally in his house.

"Are you listening? I asked you how you were too Larry." Ms. Pragmer asked.

"Oh sorry, I drifted off for a second there; I am fine, just a normal day at school." Larry replied.

"That sounds good, I suggest you go work with Eric on you guys homework, he's waiting upstairs. Supper will be ready in a half hour." Ms. Pragmer stated.

Larry walked upstairs to his room and sat with Eric prepared to do their homework. "How was your day Eric?" Larry asked.

"Not exactly the greatest, Shyann is going through a tough time right now, her mother, sister and brother were all killed today and there was no trace. Not even a drop of blood. All they received was an official letter confirming their death." Eric replied.

"Are you serious?" Larry asked thinking back on the three areas of blood he ran into on his way home.

"Yes, I'm afraid it was that damn wolf again, I saw three black lights while looking out your window earlier nearby." Eric responded.

"This is going too far," Larry began, "Why does he pick off people's family members and leaving them with so little? Why does he let certain people live and others die?"

"I don't know, but I think it's almost time for us to make a stand." Eric replied.

Meanwhile, somewhere else, a dark, strange place with blood, corpses and tombstones as far as the eye can see sat the dark-hooded figure known as The Reaper with his black wolf. The moon was bright giving some light so you could see the Reaper's face and the blood running down it.

"It's almost time my pet, these souls are making a delicious treat for my rebirth you are doing your job well." The Reaper said in his sickly, snakelike voice.

"It was my pleasure. I enjoy seeing all those innocent victims squirm beneath my teeth." The wolf replied in his own raspy voice.

"Soon enough we will have enough souls and I can take down that brat, Larry Pragmer myself." The Reaper stated.

"And then the world will fall under our control, death will increase and the demons of hell shall feed eternally." The wolf replied.

"We cannot take our enemies too lightly Nyx, remember what happened last time with Larry's parents." The Reaper reminded his pet.

"Yes, all the more reason for us to tear them apart limb by limb." The wolf began, "We will crush their bodies and kills them organ by organ."

"That we shall, that we shall, there is just one more matter to address now." The Reaper replied.

"Are you speaking of what I think you are?" The wolf asked.

"Yes, the man has opened his mouth too much now, he must killed he will fill up my soul to a point where I can almost completely return. We cannot show him mercy." The Reaper replied.

"I know not the meaning of the word mercy, I will hunt this man down and he will feel my teeth, he will cry for me to let go, but I won't. Consider this soul hunting over." The wolf said confidently.

"Then it shall be done, find the man and let me steal his soul." The Reaper demanded.


	11. The Man Killed

**Chapter 11**

_The Man Killed_

"We can't just continue to stand around watching everyone die; this madness must come to an end." Larry said.

"Yes, I know, but we need a plan too. When we are dealing with Death itself we should be cautious, it's not like we can just rush in and kill him easily." Eric responded.

Larry smacked his hand down on his desk, "So what are we waiting for? We need to act now."

"We will talk about it tomorrow Larry, we need to get our rest before we get this plan fixed besides thinking of a plan at this time of night would likely not be a good idea." Eric replied.

"You are probably right," Larry began, "First thing after school tomorrow we are coming up with a plan."

Ms. Pragmer's voice yelled from upstairs, "It's eleven pm boys, time to go to sleep."

"Yes mother." Larry responded.

Larry and Eric went to bed. Eric slept as well as usual, however, Larry was still be haunted by nightmares. His nightmare took place in a dark graveyard blood pouring down Larry's face as The Reaper stared him down.

"Why don't you give up Larry? Your heart cannot take anymore punishment." said The Reaper in Larry's dream.

"I won't let you beat me." Larry lunged forward at The Reaper as The Reaper sidestepped him and Larry fell flat on his face.

"I'm not going to kill you Larry. I have much greater plans for you. To kill you now would be a grave mistake. Don't worry, I will take your life soon enough." The Reaper replied.

"Even though you won't kill me, I will kill you." Larry picked up a spiked bat and swung it at The Reaper who disappeared before the bat could hit him.

Larry woke up from his nightmare breathing heavily and went down to get some milk. He walked down the stairs hearing sounds coming from the kitchen and grabbed a flashlight. Walking into the kitchen with the flashlight he shined a light all around the kitchen and saw nothing. Larry walked up to the fridge to get him some milk as he turned around he dropped the milk on the ground as he stared at another message written in blood.

Friday at 7, Hel's Graveyard.

Larry rubbed his eyes and the message disappeared, assuming it wasn't real he went into the bathroom to wash off his face. After washing thoroughly he looked into the mirror to see and image of The Reaper standing behind him. With Larry's heart beating fast he turned around and saw nothing. Larry then began breathing heavily as he heard a voice, "If you are not at the graveyard I will kill you regardless."

Larry walked back up to his room scared and pulled his blanket over his head. He tried going back to sleep, but was having trouble doing so. After tossing and turning for three hours he finally fell asleep at four am.

Back at "The Endless Graveyard" The Reaper and Nyx spoke to each other. "You did a very good job creeping out that boy master." spoke Nyx.

"It's simple to scare little children, they frighten easily; it overwhelms my heart with joy." The Reaper replied.

"I agree with you, it is quite enchanting. So when should we get rid of this man?" Nyx asked.

"At noon he shall meet his fate in the place in which he enjoys the most." The Reaper answered.

"Good, I will go prepare myself for the confrontation by getting some rest." Nyx spoke before going to sleep.

…. 2 hours later …

"Wake up Larry, wake up Eric, it's time for school." yelled Ms. Pragmer.

"Yes mother," Larry stated as he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes.

"Right," Eric began afterwards, "I will go ahead and shower."

"Sure thing, I can lay down for a few more minutes then." Larry proclaimed.

Eric grabbed his clothes and walked across the hall to bathroom and quickly ran out back into Larry's room. "I saw something in your bathroom Larry, come look." Eric demanded.

Larry rubbed some more sleep out of his eyes and walked into the bathroom with Eric. "What is it?" Larry asked.

"Look in the tub." Eric replied.

Larry looked inside the tub and noticed fur, which looked like the fur of a dog or … a wolf. Looking closely Larry held his head in frustration, "Why won't they leave me alone? What is so special to make them specifically target me?" Larry said out loud.

Eric concerned for his friend put his hand over Larry's shoulder, "Are you okay buddy?"

"Let … go … of me NOW." Larry shouted.

Eric frightened let go and looked into Larry's eyes. Usually, Larry's eyes were normally green, but they were glowing red at this time for some reason. "Alright, sorry bro." Eric responded.

"You would have no reason to be sorry if you didn't grab my shoulder in the first place." Larry said pushing Eric's arm out of the way, "Now leave me alone, I'm going back to my room for now."

Frightened by what had just happened Eric let Larry go back to his room and went to take his shower. At the same time Eric was taking a shower Larry seemed to be fighting with himself, "Get out of my head." he shouted, "You're not welcome here."

"But, we were having so much fun; Eric seemed to enjoy you getting pissed off at him, if I do say so myself." said a creepy voice, "Let the evil consume you Larry."

"No, I will not let you have my body, this is my body and I have control." Larry replied.

"Very well then," said the voice, "But you will come back to me one day."

"Don't count on it." Larry said as he regained control of himself.

The water turned off as Eric got dressed and left the bathroom fully clothed and with his hair brushed. He walked in Larry's room grabbing his backpack, but was scared to speak to Eric.

"I'm sorry Eric I did not mean to yell at you. I don't know what came over me." Larry stated.

"It's okay Larry, I was just worried about you, I'm sorry for interfering." Eric replied, "I'm going on to school now, I guess I'll see you there."

"Alright," Larry began as he got dressed and ready to go, "I'm surprised my Mom didn't come up here wondering what was going on." he said to himself.

Larry walked downstairs noticing his mother was nowhere in the kitchen, and he left the house wondering where she was. He looked around and saw her nowhere, concerned Larry walked to school looking around corners, but seeing no one.

"Hey there Larry." said a familiar voice.

"Well, hello Kevin, what brings you out at this time in the morning?" Larry asked.

"Not much, getting some fresh air, even wizards need it every once in awhile." Kevin answered.

Kevin and Larry walked together talking about what they had been up to until Larry went to his school, "Well, I will talk to you later then Larry." Kevin walked away as Larry went into is school.

Marie ran up to Larry and jumped onto him hugging him, "I was worried sick about you. Why didn't you call yesterday?"

"Sorry, I guess I forgot I just had a not so great day and there was too many things were on my mind." Larry answered.

"Oh, would you like to speak about it baby?" Marie asked.

"No, it's nothing I can't handle. I'll be alright." Larry said with a smile.

"Well, if you say you'll be alright then I will take your word for it." Marie responded as they walked to their classes. "I'll see you later Larry."

"Bye Marie." Larry said as he walked to his class.

Marie walked away worried that he was not being truthful about being okay as Larry had forgotten to kiss her before his class.

The day went by as more and more people became concerned with Larry's state as he did not speak to much anyone and kept his head down most of the time during his classes. The bell rang at noon signaling lunch as Larry went to a spot behind the school and sat against the walls where he could see the Church about 2 miles away. Squinting Larry though he saw a small black figure run behind the Church, but decided he was just seeing things again.

Meanwhile, at the church there in fact was something behind the Church. The Reaper's wolf, Nyx walked up to the side door and turned into a human that looked similar to one of the churchgoers and knocked on the door. Brother Love walked up and looked through the peephole from the inside and unlocked the door letting Nyx in. "Nice to see you Mister Galloway. May I help you with something?" Brother Love asked.

"Yes, you can," Nyx began to reply as he locked the door from the inside and turned into a new being half-human, half-wolf. "You can help me by giving me your soul, give in freely and I won't have to use force."

"Is that so? That is a shame. Why would you do this to a preacher?" Brother Love replied.

"You have a big mouth Brother Love. You spread the secret of mine existence and the existence of The Reaper. People with such big mouths do not deserve life so I shall take it from you." Nyx stated.

"And if I refuse to give into your demands?" Brother Love asked curiously.

"Then I will force you through acts of violence, I will rip out every organ of your body and kill you myself. What do you say preacher?" Nyx asked.

If it's a fight you want," Brother Love said pulling up his sleeves, "Then it's a fight you shall receive." Brother Love waved is arm and turned into a younger human, about 26 years old and he was wearing a red t-shirt with blue jeans. "So are you ready to roll?"

"Someone is using their abilities I see. Tell me, follower of Christ, what does it feel like knowing that soon your soul will be devoured?" Nyx asked.

Brother Love smirked, "My soul will remain intact." Brother Love pointed a finger at the piano on the stage and it started playing although the string from inside came out and went after Nyx. Dodging the attacks by rolling underneath Nyx pointed his finger out at altar sending it flying towards Brother Love as the piano strings hit the ground in front of a pew. Brother Love pulled his hands up in front of his arms and moved them out causing the altar to fall two feet in front of him.

"Seems you have a good knowledge of how to use your magic, such skill will make your death all the sweeter." Nyx said as he pointed at the pew beside Brother Love and sent it flying at him, Brother Love ducked as the pew went flying through the wall going into another room revealing the preacher's office. Brother Love feeling a sort of home field advantage jumped through the hole in the wall and grabbed a large sword about 5 feet in length and very sharp, sharp enough to cut through any wall with no problem. He jumped back out and flew at Nyx who sidestepped causing Brother Love to miss him, Nyx then grabbed onto Brother Love's head as the sword got stuck in the ground and pulled him down to the ground.

Brother Love pushed Nyx hard off of him making Nyx fly up and land going through a pew. "Is this really all you got? Show me your true strength." Brother Love proclaimed stepped on the altar flinging himself in the air going in to kick Nyx in the face. Nyx grabbed Brother Love's leg and smashed him through the altar behind him. Nyx then began wailing on Brother Love causing blood to squirt out of his face until Brother Love flipped him into the air where Nyx landed feet first on a pew two rows behind where they were.

"You're pretty good," Nyx commented, "But not good enough." Nyx pointed his hands at the roof and a ceiling fan flew at Brother Love still spinning and as it reached being two feet away from him Brother Love pulled a pew up in front of his face with his magic stopping the pew in its tracks. Brother Love pointed his finger back toward his office as 6 swords flew out of the ground and he sent them towards Nyx. Nyx dodged the first by rolling under it the second by diving over it and the last four by hiding behind a pew as the second two landed in the middle of the aisle and the last two implanted into a pew.

"Do you want to give up yet? You are not getting my soul." Brother Love asked.

"I'm just getting warmed up." Nyx responded pointing towards Brother Love's office causing the earlier broken walls to fly in the direction of Brother Love. Brother Love dodged every piece except the last one as it hit him in the head and he fell to the ground bleeding. Nyx walked over to Brother Love and grabbed onto him making them both disappear in black smoke where they arrived in "The Endless Graveyard" without The Reaper around. Nyx pointed his finger at a tree sending a branch flying towards Brother Love. Brother Love pulled Nyx into the spot and moved out of the way as the branch struck through Nyx's hands causing Nyx's hands to bleed badly. "You bastard, you will feel the wrath of my fangs seeping into your body."

Nyx pulled the branch out of his hand and rolled away as Brother Love was about to slam his foot on Nyx's hand. Nyx turned back into a wolf and jumped on Brother Love biting at his neck causing Brother Love's neck to start bleeding until he kicked him off of him. Brother Love grabbing his neck pointed at a tombstone behind Nyx and sent it flying towards the wolf. Just before the tombstone reached him Nyx jumped over it sending it flying towards Brother Love who put his hands up over his face causing it to fall to the ground. "You're pretty good puppy." Brother Love said.

"Did you just call me puppy?" Nyx asked, "That is it, you have gone too far now." Nyx turned back into a human and flew into the ground. The ground began making little bumps as they got closer to Brother Love who jumped out of the way when a bump going to come after him then Nyx flew out of the ground behind him turning into a wolf biting on Brother Love's head. Brother Love screamed in pain as his head began to bleed horribly. With a last effort Brother Love pointed at a tombstone and sent it slamming down aiming for Nyx who moved out of the way at the last second causing the tombstone to slam over Brother Love's head knocking him unconscious.

Nyx, still in the form of a wolf began chewing away at Brother Love's body causing organs and blood to squirt out all over the place as The Reaper appeared in front of the corpse in a black fog.

"That's enough Nyx; I can easily take his soul now." The Reaper pointed his scythe at the preacher who turned back into an old man as you could see a white light releasing from his body and flying into The Reaper's scythe. "That was tasty, I think I finally have enough souls to put my plan into action, but there are still things left to do though. Nyx return this body to the Church and hang it on the wall somehow, the Church needs to know that their preacher is incapable of preaching now."

"Will do master." Nyx said as he jumped on top of Brother Love's dead body making them disappear into a black smoke until they landed back inside the destroyed church. "Let's see, what to do." Nyx turned into a half-human half-wolf again and grabbed the two swords in the middle of the aisle dragging Brother Love's dead, brutally beat up body to the main stage of the church. Nyx lifted Brother Love up and laid him against the back wall and stuck one sword through his shoulder then grabbed the other one through his other shoulder to hold him up. Nyx then put his hands on the ends of the swords causing them to strengthen hard enough to hold up Brother Love in that position.

"Well, we need some noise here," Nyx said as he pointed towards the roof causing the middle of it to collapse falling into the church then jumped onto the top of the church as a wolf where Larry could see him clearly before disappearing in black fog.

Larry frightened went to get Eric to tell him what he saw, but couldn't find him until Eric came out of a bathroom in a hall he was in. "You look scared Larry. What is wrong?" Eric asked.

"Come with me," Larry began, "Something happened at the church." Larry and Eric ran out the back gate of the school and ran towards the church.

"What is the problem Larry?" Eric asked, "What did you see?"

"I'm not sure, but the roof collapsed and then I saw that wolf on top of the roof before he disappeared into his black fog." Larry answered.

"That's awful." Eric responded as they approached closer to the church. They ran faster and faster until finally reaching it and pulling on the front door. "It's locked." Eric said.

Larry pointed his finger at the door causing it to collapse and then spoke, "Now it's good."

Eric gave Larry a blank stare, "Couldn't you just have used something to unlock it instead of destroying the place even more?"

Larry didn't respond as he walked slowly in looking towards the back of the church.

"Larry, did you hear me?" Eric asked.

"Eric, look at that back of the church." Larry said.

Eric looked over the wreckage as there was rubble all inside the church and then his eyes fixated on the horrible image in the back of the building, "Tha … that's Brother Love."

Larry and Eric walked over to their dead preacher who was hanging on the wall by swords. They looked closely at his body and could see his intestines hanging out of his body and his ribs poking out through his flesh as there was blood everywhere. There was a message in blood above the preacher's rotting corpse.

Eric close your eyes.

Eric although scared to, closed his eyes where he drifted off and into darkness until he was standing in front of The Reaper who was sitting on a tombstone with the name of Eric's father on it.


	12. Under Oath

**Chapter 12**

_Under Oath_

Eric was standing in a place of complete darkness, the ground could not be seen, the sky could not be seen, all that he could seen was The Reaper who was standing in front of him on the tombstone.

"What do you want?" asked Eric.

"I just want to talk to you Eric." The Reaper replied.

"And what is it you which to speak about?" Eric responded.

"About something you are _going _to do, when you leave here you are going to make blood pact, an oath with your friend Larry." said The Reaper as he stood up from top of the tombstone.

"What if I refuse?" Eric asked staring back at The Reaper.

"If you refuse, I will kill you. However, if you do as I say I will bring your father back to you. Although you were pretty emotionless when he died maybe you prefer him that way." The Reaper proclaimed.

"What son wouldn't want his father alive? One question though, how are you going to bring someone back from the dead?" asked Eric in curiosity.

"Who said your father was dead? You find him lying bleed in your house one day and presume he is dead?" The Reaper replied walking closer to Eric.

"Generally, when someone is not breathing they are dead." Eric said.

"That is correct, although you will learn that as The Reaper I can make even the most obvious deaths untrue. There is never certainty when you think someone is dead." The Reaper began, "So what do you say?"

"Why do you need me to make a pact with Larry?" Eric asked in concern.

"I have my reasons," The Reaper said pulling his scythe to Eric's neck, "Now what do you say?"

"But, I have complete trust in him; I still don't see why I need a pact." Eric replied.

"You think you trust him, I was always told to never trust anyone; I have something for you to watch." The Reaper replied point behind him as a video came up on the screen.

The video began playing; Larry was having fun laughing with his friends to the left of him was Johnny Macintosh and to the left was Troy Underwood. "So Larry, tell us that story about Eric again." Troy demanded.

"Alright, so we were walking down the streets the other day and he told me this lame story about how he had been crying the about his father's death. Imagine that a guy like him crying." Larry said.

"That's really sad I can't believe Eric would cry or any guy for that matter." Johnny laughed.

"Yeah, it's kind of funny to think about." Larry laughed back.

The video turned off at that point and Eric stood in disbelief at what he had just seen, "So Larry told everyone what I told him not to?"

"Yes, the video proves it, you cannot trust him." The Reaper stated.

"Why would I want to make a pact with him _if _he did that?" Eric asked.

"Do you want to see if you can trust him as a friend now?" The Reaper replied, "For all you know he went home saddened about it that night.

"Now that you mention it he was looking pretty sad about something that night, but how can I just forgive something like that?" Eric responded.

"Why forgive or forget when you can ignore and see him prove he is trustworthy himself?" The Reaper asked curiously.

"You have a point there; I think I can trust him so that's what I will do." Eric agreed.

"Excellent," The Reaper said as he made a cut in Eric's neck, "Now it's official, you will lose all memory of why you are making a pact with him when I send you back, but you will remember you promises to make one."

"What? Why?" Eric asked.

"You will find out sooner or later, here's a note saying what you will say for your oath." The Reaper replied as he knocked Eric on the head with his scythe sending him back to the church.

"Are you okay Eric?" Larry asked.

"Yes, I am fine," Eric began remembering that he had to make an oath with his best friend, "Larry I need you to make an oath with me."

"Why? Don't you trust me Eric?" Larry asked.

"Yes, I trust you now, but I was forced into a pact with The Reaper that I would do this because he promised the return of my father." Eric stated.

"Okay then, if you need it for that reason I will do it." Larry agreed.

Eric pulled out a knife and said to Larry, "We should do this outside and off the property."

Larry agreed and they went out behind the church to a wall just behind the property that had graffiti paint all over it, "This will work." Eric proclaimed.

Eric pulled out his knife and pulled out his paper, "Larry, I need you to make me a promise no matter what you do you will protect me from any harm that comes to me. If I am about to be killed you will step in and save me. If The Reaper were to pull his scythe out on me you would be prepared to strike no matter what the circumstance."

"Of course I can promise that Eric, you can trust me." Larry said as he moved his hand towards Eric.

"Also, no matter what happens Friday night in the graveyard you will allow me to stay in your house." Eric continued.

"Anything you want Eric." Larry moved his arm closer to Eric.

Eric moved the knife closer to Larry's arm prepared to make the cut, but was having a hard time as his hand moved with nervousness. Larry grabbed Eric's hand and assisted him making a cut in his own his feeling the blood exit his body and squinted in pain. "Are you okay?" Eric asked.

"Yes, I am fine Eric. Thanks for the concern." Larry said as Eric moved the blade back to his own hand.

"Larry, I promise you that I will stand by your side no matter what happens and I will have your back whenever you need it." Eric stated as he struck the knife into his own hand feeling his blood come out as he too squinted in pain. Larry and Eric then shook hands as they shared their blood with each other.

"I guess that does it, I'm always here for you pal." Larry promised.

"So am I Larry. How could I not be after you provided me a place to live in all?" Eric asked rhetorically.

"That is true Eric, very true." Larry said as they walked away from the wall and realizing school was now over they began walking towards the house. Larry pointed his finger at both his and Eric's hands causing the cut to close and no longer visible as the blood disappeared as well, "Don't want my mom to wonder what happened."

"Good thinking Larry; that would be a recipe for disaster." Eric replied.

As they walked in the door Larry's mother was still not home and they became concerned as to where she was until Larry found a note on the fridge.

Larry and Eric,  
I had an a work emergency and have to go out of town for the week  
I will be back home on Saturday, food is plentiful. I love you two.  
Ms. Pragmer

"Well, looks like we have the house to ourselves this week this could be fun." Larry proclaimed.

"Yes, it could be fun, maybe we should invite a couple friends over to hang out." Eric stated.

"I would say yes, but I have promised my mom that I would never do that if she left." Larry answered.

"Oh okay, that works then, we still got the whole week to just chill at least." Eric stated as they went to Larry's room to hang out.

"Hey, I'm going to have to make a quick phone call to Marie, I will be back in a few minutes." Larry said as they entered.

"Alright buddy, that's right you didn't get to meet her after class; she is probably worried sick." Eric exclaimed.

Larry walked down the stairs and the dialed the numbers in the phone and heard the phone ring twice before he heard an answer, "Hello is Marie there?"

"No she isn't, she is staying the night at her friend's house. Is this Larry?" Marie's mother asked.

"Yes, it is, can you tell her I called?" Larry answered.

"Yes, I will, she was worried about you when she got home. I am glad to hear you call. I will call her now and let her know." Marie's mother promised.

"Thank you, have a good day." Larry said.

"You too Larry." Marie's mother said as they hung up their respective phones.

Larry walked back up to his room as Eric was studying his math homework.

"That was quick." Eric stated.

"Yeah she wasn't home," Larry began, "Her mother said she would call her and let her know I called."

"Well that is good, would you mind if I asked you to help me with my homework?" Eric asked.

"Not at all, you know how good I am at math." Larry answered.

Larry went over and grabbed a pencil and a notebook to sit by Eric to help him with his work. "Okay, what about this one? I can't seem to figure it out." Eric asked pointing at the textbook.

"Okay, let's see here," Larry began, "There is enough room in one box to fit thirty five crackers in it and in the other there is enough to fit forty crackers. If you need to put two-hundred and twenty in a super large box, but have to pour them in from one of the other boxes while they are completely filled how do you do it?"

"Tricky isn't it?" Eric asked in confusion.

"Okay, let's look at it like this." Larry said as he wrote down on his paper.

35x + 40y = 220.

"Now," Larry began again, "let's take two hundred and twenty and move it to the other side."

35x + 40y – 220 = 0

"Watch this." Larry said.

7x + 8y – 44 = 0

"We'll now do this the way I like to do it, trial and error," Larry proclaimed, "Let's go with a simple one saying x = 2 and y = 1 first while we are it, let's more the forty-four back to the other side too."

7(2) + 8(1) = 44  
14 + 8 = 22

"That is not forty-four. However we now have twenty-two which is half of forty-four so we simply double the original guesses." Larry stated.

7(4) + 8(2) = 44  
28 + 16 = 44

"This statement is true, so the answer is: Fill the box they can hold thirsty five crackers and pour it in the big box four times and do that two times with the box that can hold forty." Larry said as he solved the problem.

"Thank you Larry, that was very helpful." Eric said pulling his book back to his lap.

Larry and Eric stayed up for a few hours finishing their homework before going to sleep. The next day came and went and the day after church was cancelled due to the church being destroyed as everyone learned Brother Love's funeral would be held in two Saturdays. The next day came and went as well without much excitement and then Friday came, a day that would prove fateful for Larry.

"Wake up Eric." Larry said as he arose that morning, "It's time to get ready for school."

"Alright dude, you go ahead and get a bath first and I will finish up the homework that will take me about five minutes." Eric replied.

Larry agreed and went to get his shower. As he walked out he noticed the sky outside was grey and it was raining looking out the upstairs hall window before he went into the bathroom. When he finished he got all cleaned off and walked out as Eric was ready to get his done as well. Larry sat down on his bed and looked out the window at the rain as it began to lightning too. "It's going to be a long day." he said to himself.

Eric walked out and they grabbed their backpacks and went on their way to the bus, "Sucks we can't just walk today I enjoy it more than the bus." Eric said as they took their seat.

"I'm with you on that, but this isn't exactly what I would consider the best weather to walk around in." Larry replied.

"Got that right, does it feel strange out here to you?" Eric asked, "As if something is going to happen today."

"You're not alone; I am having the same feeling. You know I have to go to Hel's Graveyard at seven pm tonight?" Larry answered with a question.

"No, I didn't. I am going to go with you." Eric responded.

"You really don't need to Eric. I don't want anything to happen to you." Larry stated.

"Don't worry about me, we made a pact remember? I'm not letting you go alone." Eric said as the bus reached the school.

"Alright man, I guess that'll do. I'll meet you out here after school today." Larry said as they walked quickly to their classes.

The day was long and dreary at first as it seemed to drag along. People's energies were negative and everyone felt as though this day was going to last forever. Lunch came and Larry went to sit behind the school again with his lunch and began writing down things for the night coming. Ian Longstran came around the corner and sat down by Larry concerned about him, "Is everything alright Larry?"

"Yes, it's fine just have a lot of stuff to do tonight and I felt like being alone to get everything ready.' Larry answered.

"What's going on tonight?" Ian asked, "Anything you need to talk about?"

"No, it's all good," Larry began, "Just some things that need to be taken care of. I don't want to put you in the middle of my problems."

"Alright buddy, if you say so." Ian patted Larry's back and they sat there eating their lunch until the bell rang again, "I'll see you later."

"Yeah, see you Monday at school just in case we don't have church on Sunday." Larry said as he stood up. They left and walked to their classes. Larry walked into his and took his seat beside Marie.

"Hey sweetie, how are you doing today?" Marie asked.

"I am okay, just having the normal day." Larry answered.

"Not me, the atmosphere of the whole area, it just feels so weird. I don't feel very good about this day." Marie responded.

"I'm sure it's probably just the weather," Larry began, "There should be nothing to worry about."

"I know Larry; it's just one of those days." Marie replied as the teacher walked into the room.

"Alright everyone quiet down and be seated, we have things to do today." said Mrs. Slowth. The class went just as it usually did, and they were ready to go when the bell rang.

"I will see you later Marie." Larry said as they left the classroom giving her a kiss goodbye.

"Alright Larry, I'll miss you." Marie replied kissing him back.

"Miss you too." Larry said as they walked away to their next class. Larry's class was just a normal everyday type of Spanish class before leaving for his second favorite class, Drama with Mister Shallowgrove.

As he walked into the school the rain and lightning really started coming down and Mister Shallowgrove came in right behind him ready to start his lesson for the day.


	13. Class Dismissed

**Chapter 13**

_Class Dismissed_

"Alright, sit in your seats." Mister Shallowgrove said to the class, "Now today, we will welcome back our little smartass, welcome back Ron."

"Whatever teacher, I could care less for your welcomes." Ron replied.

"You're a fun cookie you know that." Mister Shallowgrove responded.

"Mister Shallowgrove, maybe it's best not to provoke a student." Larry advised.

"Very well Larry, you are correct." Mister Shallowgrove agreed.

"Look here, if it isn't the teacher's pet, Larry Pragmer," Ron began, "Tell me, how does it feel thinking everyone in the school loves you?"

"I don't think that at all." Larry answered.

"Well, you say that, but I am not convinced." Ron spoke back.

"That's enough," Clarise interrupted, "Shut up Ron!"

"You're just enlarging his ego Clarise. Why don't you tell him to shut up too?" Ron asked.

""Because, he didn't do anything, you are the one starting it." Clarise answered with a little rage in her voice.

"You seem to be a little worked up there," started Ron as he walked over to Clarise, "What's wrong have a little crush do you?"

"I have a boyfriend, you rotten perv. Damn You!" Clarise responded.

"Clarise, Ron, quiet. Clarise don't use such language," Mister Shallowgrove began, "Now let's get this class started."

"Sure, this argument is meaningless anyways." Ron agreed as he went back to his seat.

"Larry, Clarise, Sora did you three want to do your extra credit today?" asked Mister Shallowgrove.

"Sure, best to go ahead and get it over with," Larry replied.

Clarise and Sora both agreed as they walked up to the front of the class. "Alright," Sora began, "Our improv subject is things you would not admit to a normal friend whether or not it is true. Larry will be first, then Clarise, leaving me to go last."

The storm outside intensified as they were starting their presentation. Larry went first, "I hug my teddy bear when I sleep."

Clarise then did hers, "I still wet my bed."

Sora did his first one next, "I cried over a movie I watched last night." The three continued a little while longer with their subject going through three times before running out of ideas.

"Well, that was interesting, yet you did it and will all receive 5 points extra credit on your next test." Mister Shallowgrove said approvingly.

"Thank You, sir." Larry responded with a smile.

"There you go again Larry," Ron said, "Will you ever shut up?"

"I'm not sure Ron," Larry began, "If it's that big of a deal why don't you try and shut me up yourself?"

"I don't have time for you, rotten scum." Ron replied as he got up and walked towards the door. The storm really was in rage now as the lightning struck closer to the school and hail began falling from the sky.

"This does not look good." said Mister Shallowgrove. At that point, a bolt of lightning struck the power box to the school and all the lights went out making a couple of the girls scream. "Quiet children, this is just a storm."

"It's an awfully bad storm." Larry replied.

"That it is," Mister Shallowgrove said as the speaker to the school came on and the principal made an announcement.

Due to ferocious weather your 7th period classes end now  
Everyone should stay put though so do not think of leaving  
Until the buses get here unless you are a driver.  
If you do drive and wish to leave we advise you to be careful  
These storms are no laughing matter and we do not want anyone to get hurt.  
Until Monday students, have a good weekend.

"Well, I guess that settles it, you may go out in the halls or drive home if you like, but don't go getting yourself killed in this weather." Mister Shallowgrove said.

The storm continued to grow fiercer every second and lightning struck a hole in the side of the school causing many students to hold their hands over their heads. Larry looked out the hole formed by the wall and saw a black wolf standing just outside of it. "Hello class," Spoke Nyx as the class screamed in terror at the talking wolf, "What's the matter? Are you all frightened? I can assure you I don't plan on killing all of you."

"You plan to kill us?" Sora asked.

"Not all of you, just some of you," Nyx began, "Now, who should I kill first? How about you pretty little girl in the corner? Nah, too easy."

"Leave them alone." Larry spoke.

"Larry, my favorite little friend, let me ask; have you prepared for this evening? I can tell you it would be wise to." Nyx smirked.

"You bastard," Larry replied, "Leave everyone alone, you're feud is with me."

"But, the best way to torture you is to harm those around you," Nyx responded, "Besides this is just so much fun."

The storm came down harder and harder as the dog continued staring over the students inside the classrooms. "Go away, NOW!!?" Larry yelled.

"Where are your manners Larry?" Nyx asked, "Surely your mother taught you better than that."

"Don't you dare speak about my mother." Larry said in his frustration.

"Oh my, I wouldn't be telling me that if I were you, I could easily end her life right now if I wanted to." Nyx replied.

"Fat chance, my mother isn't in town right now." Larry spoke back.

"You think so, huh?" Nyx began, "Tell me, then where is she?"

"Like I would tell you where she is, you stupid pup." Larry responded.

"How dare you insult me. Anyways, I know where she is, and it's certainly not where you think." Nyx said as he started growling.

"How would you know? Where is she?" asked Larry.

"Why, she is with our good friend. A person you know as The Reaper." Nyx smiled. Larry's eyes widened as he leapt at the wolf. The wolf turned into a human and pushed Larry on his back. "Geeze, you are so rude." A voice sounded in the distance calling for Nyx, "Well it's you guys lucky day, I have to go now. Larry, I will see you tonight." Nyx responded as he faded away in a black fog.

"Damnit!" Larry said as he struck the desk with his hand making it bleed.

"Larry, what is with you lately? You never acted or spoke like this when you first began High School." Clarise asked curiously.

"I guess when you've gone through all the crap I've gone through in the past six months you stop bottling everything up and start expressing yourself." Larry answered as he walked away, "Now I have stuff to do, I hope to see you all again on Monday."

"I hope you lose Larry." Ron said. Larry got pissed off at those words, walked over to Ron, grabbed him by his shirt collar and slammed him into the wall.

"Larry, stop it right there." Mister Shallowgrove said trying to break them up.

"You're luck Ron," Larry began letting go of Ron, "I was about to knock your lights out."

"Anytime you want to go, I'm all game," Ron smirked, "I think you should wait until that hand is fixed though."

Larry walked out of the classroom before he became too enraged to contain himself and sat in the hall waiting for the rain to end. Eric noticed Larry sitting down the hallway and came to sit by him. "Larry, what is up?" Eric asked.

"I don't know where to begin," Larry said, "That Reaper, that stupid wolf, Ron Lightley continuing to hate me for no reason."

"Well, I know all about The Reaper and the wolf, but what's with you and Ron?" Eric replied.

"Well," Larry said as he thought, "It all began back in fourth grade, there was a spelling bee. Ron and I were flying through the questions with ease. Eventually, it came to a point where he and I were the last two left in the bee and then he got the word ambiguous. He spelt that word wrong and then I got a word to see if I could win. It was onomatopoeia; I spelt that right and won the contest. Every since then, anytime Ron is around me he has treated me differently, he can't stand me for some reason. I figured over the years he would mature and get over it, but he never did."

"So, that is all over something as simple as a little spelling bee?" Ron asked.

"Yes, stole the words right out of my mouth." Larry answered.

The storm was receding and the weather showed it would be away for a couple hours. "This seems like a good time to get going." Eric stated.

"You're right, let's go ahead," Larry began, "I'll have to call Marie after we return either tonight or tomorrow."

"Sounds like a plan." Eric said as he and Larry began their walk home. The walk home felt eerie; perhaps, it was because they knew what they had to do later that day. They didn't really even speak, just stared off into space in wonderment. As they walked in the door Eric brought up Ms. Pragmer's absence.

"She's not really gone. I found out where she really is today." Larry said, "I should've known this note wasn't her handwriting."

"Where is she Larry?" Eric asked.

"The Reaper, he took her, well his wolf took her. She is more than likely going to be there tonight when we show up." Larry responded.

"Wait, how did he get a hold of your mom?" Eric replied.

"I don't know, he is pretty quick, I'm used to the black fog showing up. You would think one of us would've seen him." Larry answered.

"Well, as you said, he is quick. You know we weren't really paying that much attention that morning either," Eric began, "Remember, I was getting a shower and you were in your room basically just waking up."

"Oh yeah, he could've easily snuck and got her at that time, but we still probably would've heard something." Larry said.

"Maybe, he came in why you were yelling at me." Eric suggested.

"Yeah, I'm still sorry about that by the way, that must've been what happened though." Larry spoke back as he had a tear roll down his face, "That makes it my fault."

"It's not your fault Larry," Eric began, "You had a rough morning, don't worry we will get her back tonight."

"You think so?" Larry asked, "I'm still not convinced it's not my fault, but I don't have time to feel bad about myself."

"Right, so have we come up with a plan for tonight?" Eric replied.

"Well, we have to change it if my mom is there, but I think I got it." Larry answered.

"Of course, so what is the plan?" Eric asked.

"Basically, we need to find a way to get rid of this Reaper once and for awhile without my mother dying by his hands." Larry said.

"I know that much," Eric replied, "But, just how do you plan on doing that?"

"Well, I'm imagining we will have to go on the spur of the moment." Larry answered.

"Doing that is not sure way to save your mother. That can be the way you start, but what will you do if he threatens her?" Eric responded.

"I'll have to let him take me instead. What else am I supposed to do?" Larry asked.

"You can't just let him get away Larry, there has to be more we can do. Look we have an hour before we should get going, let's think about this." Eric replied.

"Alright, let's see what we can come up with." Larry agreed. Eric and Larry sat there for the next thirty minutes trying to think of something to do. During their deep thought they came up with a plan they figured would accomplish both finishing off The Reaper and saving Ms. Pragmer.

"This plan looks like it will work Larry." Eric proclaimed.

"Yes, I really like it, it's not full proof, but it's the best chance we've got." Larry replied.

Eric patted Larry's back, "It's okay, I am not just going to let him take your mother from you. I'll die defending the both of you if that's what it takes."

"Thank you Eric, I know I can always count on you." Larry said with a smile.

"Now, should we get ready to get going then?" Eric asked.

"Yes, you go ahead and take your shower, and I will get everything else ready." Larry answered.

Eric went to get his shower while Larry made a couple sandwiches for the walk over to the graveyard. While Larry was working with the sandwiches he found himself staring off into space wondering what all was going to happen tonight. His heart was pounding fast as his fingers trembled. Eric came downstairs all dressed and ready to go, "So, I think it's about time to get this done."

"Right," Larry began, "This Reaper doesn't know what he's dealing with. By the way Eric, where's your weapon? Surely you don't expect to beat The Reaper with your bare hands."

"Oh, I have a weapon; I have been training with your friend Kevin. Magic will be my weapon." Eric said with a smile.

"Are you serious? He taught you too." Larry replied.

Kevin, at the sound of those words walked into the house, "Yes, I did. I figured we would need all the strength we could get in this quest."

"Kevin, what are you doing here?" Larry asked.

"You didn't think I would honestly let you go through this alone did you?" Kevin responded.

"Thanks!" Larry began, "Now, I have to show you are plan. With you in this combined with our magic we should be able to beat him."

Larry showed Kevin the plan and they added Kevin's part into it, "This looks like it might work, but be careful Larry. Do not underestimate The Reaper; he will kill you if you do."

"I got his back; he won't lay a finger on Larry." Eric responded.

"I will have both of your backs; as long as I'm here you two will be okay." Kevin said walking towards the door, "Let's go, not much time left, fifteen minutes to make it and we have a five minute walk."

"Right." Larry and Eric both said. Larry made another sandwich really quick and gave it to Kevin.

"For the road?" Kevin asked.

"Yes, I figured we needed a little energy if we are going to beat this guy."

"Thanks," Kevin began, "This will help us out a little bit."

Larry, Eric and Kevin began their walk to Hel's Graveyard eating their sandwiches and discussing the plan to make sure they all remembered their parts. They walked through the field of grass Kevin had once taught Larry how to do magic in on their way to the graveyard. At that time, a black fog appeared in front of them and Nyx came out in front of the three, "Going somewhere?"

"We don't have time for you," Larry yelled, "You know we have somewhere to be."

"Yes, but what are those two doing here?" Nyx asked.

"They are coming with me." Larry answered.

"Who said you could bring friends?" Nyx replied.

"For your information, I don't need permission to bring my friends with me." Larry responded.

"Is that so?" Nyx asked, "How unfortunate then that I will have to kill all three of you here." Nyx jumped at the three of them as they jumped out of the way.

"You'll have to try harder than that." Kevin said.

"I'm just getting warmed up." Nyx replied. Nyx jumped again and missed again, "That's really you know? Just accept your death and stop dodging me."

""We won't give in to you Nyx." Eric stated.

"I think you will," Nyx began as I jumped towards Eric who sidestepped Nyx again. "Will you stop moving?"

"Not for a scumbag like you." Eric answered.

"Scumbag? Now you got me really ticked off." Nyx turned into a half-human, half-wolf and shot a bit of magic at the three. They dodged it again which infuriated Nyx even more.

"You can't hit us Nyx, why don't you just move off to the side and let us pass?" Kevin asked.

"You shall not pass," Nyx began, "Only Larry can move past."

"He's not going alone." Eric said as he shot magic towards Nyx.

The shot missed, and Nyx getting madder yelled some more, "You little punk, how dare you shoot magic at me? You're just an amateur."

"I may be an amateur, but at least I know the difference between right and wrong." Eric replied.

"Who said I don't know the difference?" Nyx asked, "Maybe I just side with the wrong."

"Enough!" Kevin shot a large light of magic at Nyx which went right through him.

"What was that?" Larry asked.

"It appears as though this is just a hologram of the wolf." Kevin answered.

"That pisses me off," Larry began, "I guess this means we all three will go after all.

"Yes, it does," Kevin said, "Now it's time for us to get going."

"How much time do we have to make it?" Larry and Eric asked.

"It is now five minutes until seven so not much time at all."

"Five minutes to make it?" Eric asked in frustration.

"Yes, we are going to have to make a run for it," Kevin replied, "Let's go."


	14. Graveyard Run

**Chapter 14**

_Graveyard Run_

"Alright," Eric said back as the three of them ran across the open field to the graveyard. The run over wasn't very peaceful as a storm was coming through and the rains were very heavy while the lightning struck all around them.

"This weather is just perfect." Larry said sarcastically.

"It really is becoming a bit of a nuisance, isn't it?" Kevin asked.

"Yes, it really is." Eric answered.

"Hold on," Kevin said as he pointed his finger towards the clouds causing the rain and lightning to lighten up a bit.

"That is a little better," Larry stated, "Thanks!"

"Don't mention it." Kevin replied as he put his hand back down and they continued running to the graveyard.

They ran as fast as they could to get there and wound out making it at six fifty-nine. "One minute early," Eric began, "Are you guys ready?"

"Definitely," Larry and Kevin both said.

At that time the clock struck seven pm and The Reaper was still nowhere to be seen, but a black fog appeared in front of them as Nyx emerged from within it.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Larry asked, "We're looking for The Reaper."

"He had a small delay, but he will be here soon. I figured I would provide you with some entertainment while you wait." Nyx snickered.

"And exactly what kind of entertainment are you suggesting?" Kevin replied.

"Take a look for yourself." Nyx pointed his finger at three and they all fell into three separate vortexes.

Inside Larry's vortex there were waves of red and black leading him into a downward spiral, Kevin's vortex had green and black waves and Eric's had blue and black waves. When Larry hit the ground he found himself in a seemingly never-ending graveyard. "Hello, is anyone here?" Larry asked.

At that point six hooded figures appeared around him, they looked like demons with their brown, flaky skin and red horns extending from their foreheads. Each of their garments covered every part of their body except for their faces and hands. The one on the left wielded a large axe, the next a giant sword, the rest wielded double daggers, numb chucks, a staff with swords on either end from left to right, finally the last held a large scythe. The ones with the daggers, numb chucks, and sword staff were relatively small whereas the other three were rather large in height.

"I don't have time for this." Larry said in his frustration.

"Well you're going to have to make time." said the figure wielding the axe.

"Ugh, hit me with your best shot." Larry replied.

At the sound of those words the figure wielding the axe jumped at Larry, but Larry dodged his blow and elbowed him in the head. "That didn't hurt at all." said the figure. Larry jumped out of the way and shot a bit of magic at him causing him to fall flat on his butt, "Alright that was more like it."

"Glad you liked it." Larry responded as he did a back flip onto a tombstone where the figure with sword slash at Larry's feet. At that point Larry jumped in the air making the figure slice through the tombstone as Larry kicked him in the head and proceeded to do a front flip over him.

"I like your style kid," said the sword wielder as he charged at Larry prepared to stab him, Larry jumped again and the figure got his sword stuck in another tombstone as the axe wielder attempted a sneak attack on Larry who rolled out of the way causing the figure to slash through the other's back with the axe cutting him in half.

"One down," Larry began, "So who's next?" With that question the dagger wielder came down from the sky at Larry who sidestepped him and then kicked him in the face making him fall on his back. The axe wielder charged at Larry who simply rolled underneath kicking the figure in a very unpleasant area causing him to fall to the ground as well.

"You son of a …" the axe wielder's words cut short as Larry shot a bit of red magic at him and the figure's head fell off.

"Four more, you want next?" Larry asked the dagger wielder as he was being attacked from behind by the one with numb chucks. Larry ducked his head as the figure struck his dagger wielding friend in the head causing the two of them of them attack each other in fury where the sword-staff wielder stuck his weapon in both of them causing them to die.

"Such pathetic fools, we are attacking the little brat not each other." said the figure with the sword-staff.

"Well, now that those four are out of the way," began the scythe wielder, "I believe it's time for us to get serious."

"Bring it on!" Larry replied as the scythe wielder took a swipe at him. Larry ducked and grabbed the handle of the scythe with his feet flipping the figure onto the ground as the other remaining one stuck his sword at the ground towards Larry who moved his head just in time.

"Your moves are quick for such a small child." said the sword-staff wielder. At that point the scythe wielder had risen and struck at Larry who quickly tripped the other figure over him causing him to take the full blow as Larry got a small cut on his shoulder where he began to bleed.

"Nicely done, now you can face the real deal. My name is Tonkichi legendary demon scythe expert of the underworld." said the figure now known as Tonkichi.

"Pragmer, Larry Pragmer," Larry began, "I will be the last human you ever see."

"Is that so?" Tonkichi asked, "Give me your best."

"Oh, I intend to." Larry said as he shot a bit of magic at Tonkichi who simply moved his blade reflecting the blast to a tombstone which it blew up.

"I hope you intend to do better than that." Tonkichi replied.

On the outskirts of the graveyard just over a black fence Eric stood on a decent sized piece of land which looked like a wasteland surrounded by fire which shot up through the cracks. A very large demon about six times Eric's size appeared on the land beside him; he held a large fire whip and smacked it on the ground.

Eric frightened covered his ears and turned around to see the large figure where his eyes widened. "What's the matter? Never seen a demon firetromber before?" said the large demon, "My name is Plorince; I am one of the three guardians of The Reaper alongside my partners Tonkichi and Altaria."

"I can't say that I have seen anything like you before, but your size will not guarantee you victory." Eric smirked.

"You dare use that face at the great Plorince? I will show you no mercy." Plorince replied.

"Please, do your worst." Eric said as he shot magic at the giant demon which just bounced off his chest.

"Well, that tickled." said Plorince as Eric began to back away stopping before he reached the crack in the ground. "What happened to all that confidence?" Plorince said as he struck his whip at Eric who rolled away causing the whip to just catch the end of the land which had a small piece melt away.

"Ugh, I don't know if I am cut out for this." Eric said in fear, "Wait, I can't think that. There must be a weakness to this guy." Plorince struck at Eric again sidestepped the whip, but got hit by a small portion of the handle that did not burn him at all. "Bingo," he thought.

"Missed again, stop moving and accept your death." Plorince said as he struck at Eric again who moved and grabbed onto the handle of the whip and jumped on it running up the whip to his arm. "What's this? Oh wait, that's right I can just do this." Plorince made fire down his arm where Eric dodged by jumping off his arm just second before it reached him. Plorince then struck his whip which caught a small piece of Eric's ear causing it to fall off as Eric screamed in pain.

"You will regret that," Eric said as he pointed towards the handle of the whip causing the handle to break in half and the fire part to fall inside the surrounding crevasse, "You think what I was doing was simply trying to run up your arm for a fatal, but in reality I noticed the weak point of your weapon when it struck, when I grabbed a hold I placed a small explosive particle on the piece allowing me to blow it up when you knocked me to the ground."

"It appears I may have underestimated you a little bit," Plorince began, "No matter, I still have some tricks up my sleeves." he said as he pointed fingers towards the ground.

"I don't think so." Eric said as he snapped his fingers causing Plorince's hands to become paralyzed.

"What, what is this? How did this happen." Plorince screamed.

"If you would kindly let me finish my story," Eric began, "I did more than just place small particles in your whip handle; I also placed a tiny invisible paralyzing wire in one of your arms as I jumped off and used my magic to extend it to your other arm causing you to keep your hands within a certain distance of each other. When you moved your hands out, you went too far and the wire took the usefulness of your arms."

"How did you know to do this?" Plorince asked.

"They don't call me a genius for nothing, and now," Eric began as he pointed his finger underneath causing a small portion of the land to rise and also the land surrounding the crevasse making Plorince stuck at the bottom of the pit by himself, "I'm sorry, but it's your time to go." Eric said as he pointed inside the crevasse causing water to shoot up all the sides of the platform. "Now die," Eric continued as he moved his arms forward causing the water to drown the bottom platform Plorince was standing on.

"No!" Plorince screamed as he began to drown under the water.

"So much for legendary guardians, now there is only two." Eric said as pointed at his feet and hovered over the crevasse to the other side of the land which had formed a small hill that he slid down and jumped over the outer gate and entered the "Endless Graveyard" where he saw a fight going on in the distance and ran towards it.

On the other side of the gate out of the graveyard all around were dead trees. Kevin was lying on the ground where Altaria was standing over him with a sword. Altaria was about six foot seven and wore armor all around his body; you could see small portions of the armor had worn away from the battle that was taking place. Around his helmet spikes were shooting out of the top, "Now Kevin Able, any last words?" he asked.

"Yes, watch out." Kevin said as his body disappeared and he came in behind and kicked at Altaria's head. Altaria moved out of the way causing Kevin to tuck and roll over on the ground. "Will you stop dodging?"

"I'll stop dodging when you learn how to attack." Altaria said as he lifted his sword and sent it stabbing towards Kevin who grabbed the blade with his feet and twisted it causing Altaria to fall into the ground. At that time Kevin tied his shoes. "Seems like an odd time for shoe-tying, don't you think?"

Kevin ignored him and jumped up to kick Altaria in the face. Altaria sidestepped, but Kevin twisted and kicked Altaria in the face with his other foot causing Altaria to fall to the ground. "How do you like that?" Kevin asked.

"You think that will help you?" Altaria replied, "You're just delaying your defeat now." Altaria pointed towards his sword and brought it back to his hands. He proceed to charge in for a final blow on Kevin, but Kevin stood up and pointed his finger at Altaria's face and bugs began to eat away at him. "What the hell?"

"They're bugs obviously; I noticed the only way to defeat you would be to attack you in the head, but you kept it too well guarded for an obvious attack. When I tied my shoes earlier what I was really doing was laying a bug bomb on my shoelace. When I kicked your face with that leg it caused the bug bomb to attach just waiting for my signal to detonate it." Kevin replied.

"You bastard!" Altaria screamed as the bugs began to eat away at his face.

"It's your fault for not keeping yourself guarded." Kevin replied as he turned and walked away.

Altaria threw his sword at Kevin before he died and said, "Never turn your back on an enemy."

Kevin stopped the sword before it reached him and sent it back at Altaria causing it to strike through his heart, "Never warn your opponents of your attacks by screaming." Kevin said as he walked through the dead trees and jumped over the gate into the graveyard.

Larry was lying flat on the ground as Tonkichi had his scythe inside of his one of Larry's shoulders. Kevin and Eric came from either side at that time Kevin shooting the scythe out of Larry's arm with magic and Eric kicked Tonkichi in the back of the head. "Are you okay Larry?" they both asked.

"I'm fine; I need to finish this guy off on my own though." Larry replied.

"If you say so Larry, be careful and try to find his weakness, we'll be here if you need our help." Kevin responded.

"Thanks!" Larry said as he jumped towards Tonkichi and planned to land a kick on him, but Tonkichi moved out of the way. Larry proceeded to shoot water at Tonkichi which Tonkichi just absorbed with his scythe.

"Surely, you don't think a little water attack will work on me do you?" Tonkichi grinned.

"You know, I really hate your smile." Larry said as he shot fire at Tonkichi which was also absorbed into the scythe.

"Fire now, huh?" Tonkichi said, "Even if you knew my secret you would never beat me."

"Perhaps, I already do know it." Larry said as he shot a bit of light at Tonkichi who reflected it back at Larry who grinned at the sight.

"What's with the smile?" Tonkichi asked.

"You'll see." Larry shot rocks, dark fog and lightning at Tonkichi all of which were absorbed by the scythe; however, Larry then appeared behind Tonkichi and shot light into his back.

"What is this? You found it, all this time; no one has ever been able to defeat me until now." Tonkichi replied as he fell to the ground.

Larry picked up the scythe which he dropped, "Go burn in Hell." Larry said as he sliced off Tonkichi's head.

"How did you figure that out Larry?" Eric asked.

"It was simple, all he did the entire battle was block his body, he risked absorbing all the elements I shot at him, but when it came to light he would move slightly and hit it back towards me with his scythe, therefore I knew light was his weakness and I needed to somehow get it into his body. I thank him for providing the opening I needed." Larry explained.

"That was very good Larry," Kevin replied, "I think we are all ready to face this Reaper now."

"Your wish is my command." said a voice in the sky as the three guardians of The Reaper's bodies all flew into the air and turned into three orbs of light, one white, one black, and one red. They all combined together and were absorbed into the moon.

"What the heck is going on here?" Eric asked.

"Oh, well first off I want to think the three of you for getting rid of my worthless servants, it was very helpful in letting me achieve my goal. See I needed a few more souls to be able to return to the Earth and I decided what better way to do that than by tiring you three out before our fight, I planned on my guardian's deaths." the voice said as The Reaper glided down from the moon, "Now, it is time." The Reaper said as he flung his sword in the sky causing the surrounding area to turn to black as they all went through a vortex.

When they all landed they were back in Hel's Graveyard with The Reaper standing over them looking sickly at them. "So does this mean you're finally going to fight us yourself?" Larry asked.

"Yes, it does Larry. I've wanted to kill you for a long time too." The Reaper answered. "Ever since your mother got rid of my pet and your father attempted to kill me, I knew you would end up just as them, heartless and cold."

"Heartless? Cold? I believe you need to look into a mirror buddy." Larry replied.

"You have no idea exactly what happened that night and you dare to use my words on me?" The Reaper responded.

"Well, I don't need to know what happened back then to know what you just did in your Endless Graveyard." Larry answered.

"So you know the name of where my body was being held captive, do you?" The Reaper smirked.

"Actually, I just said that because there were graves as far as the eye could see." Larry said as he smirked back.

"I am shocked you would make such a face at me, and here I thought you cared about me." The Reaper replied.

"Care about you? Don't make me laugh." Larry said as Eric and Kevin stood beside him.

"That saddens me Larry; I thought we could be friends." The Reaper said back.

"Why would I be friends with someone who is trying to kill me?" Larry asked.

"There you go making assumptions again," The Reaper began, "Did it ever cross your mind that I was just trying to make you stronger?"

"Considering everyone you killed, I could care less." Larry said.

"Haven't you ever wondered who I am?" The Reaper responded.

"Well, you got me there, yes I have wondered that." Larry replied.

"Interesting," The Reaper responded.

"I'm so sick of you." Larry said as he shot magic at The Reaper who just let it hit him.

"Did you just try to hit me before I could tell you my story? That is so rude." The Reaper said as he stuck his scythe into the ground making the ground split in three causing Larry, Eric and Kevin to be separated.

"Well, get to talking then Ret." Larry replied.

"How dare you use my real name? Where did you learn that?" The Reaper asked.

"I took a trip to the past and learned what happened to my parents twelve years ago and just overheard your name." Larry answered.

"Well," The Reaper said, "You still don't know my story. You do not know the story of me, Ret Ehi Pragmer."


	15. The Truth Revealed

**Chapter 15**

_The Truth Revealed_

"Say what?" Larry asked.

"You heard me," The Reaper began, "Don't make me say it again."

"But, you said Pragmer." Larry replied.

"Yes, that is because that is my last name, are you surprised?" The Reaper said walking closer to Larry.

"Kind of, but I am curious now. Who are you? We must be related in some way." Larry asked.

"You are correct Larry, we are related, but for you to understand who I am you will have to take a trip with me into the past." The Reaper began as he appeared in front Larry, "So, grab my scythe."

"Why should I trust you?" Larry asked.

"If I wanted to kill you quickly, I would've jumped after you. Truth of the matter is I want to tell you my story." The Reaper answered, "Now, grab my scythe."

Larry grabbed a hold of The Reaper's scythe and the background began to swirl in waves of red, blue and black. When the waves ended they appeared in the middle of an old empty street which appeared to have not been cleaned in years. There was dirt all over the sides of the road and a field of grass behind them, and in front of them was an old two-story building fairly large-sized, it had many busted windows and the door was off of its hinges. On the right side of the building was a cracked sign:

Hel's Orphanage

The Reaper began to speak, "This is where I grew up. Follow me."

They walked inside the orphanage, which looked as crappy as it did on the outside. The rooms were dusty and the dressers were broken, and the kids look like they hadn't eaten in weeks. The Reaper lead Larry into a room in the back left corner of the third floor where a few of the orphans stayed. They walked in and saw one little kid sitting there. His clothes were old and his pants were ripped, both of his eyes were black and he had blood stains in his white t-shirt and running down his arms. He had black hair which ran under his shoulders and brown eyes; he appeared to be around eight years old. A lady came into the room, "Ret, would you like some supper?" the lady was wearing a nice blue shirt with black Capri pants, her hair was a brown normal length and her eyes were brown also. She was carrying a plate of mashed potatoes, macaroni and green beans.

"No thanks Ms. Larouche, I'm not hungry." said Ret.

"Are you sure?" the lady now introduced as Ms. Larouche asked, "You haven't eaten all day."

"I said no!" screamed Ret as he knocked the plate and the food onto the floor without touching it. The plate broke as it the floor and Ms. Larouche walked out of the room with a scared look on her face.

"You see Larry, I was a freak, and this is just the beginning." The Reaper said

They looked back at the boy who was crying, his tears falling to the floor, "Why does this always happen? How come every time I get mad something bad always happens?" Ret asked himself smacking his hands on the walls causing them to bleed before laying his arms in his hands in his lap, "Why can't I be normal."

The children would not go near him because they were scared of him and you could hear them whisper things such as, "The freak did it again." and "Why won't he just go ahead and die?"

"No one cared about me, the kids hated me, and my parents despised me. I had no one." The Reaper stated.

Ms. Larouche came back in the room when she saw Ret crying, "Are you okay Ret?" she asked as she sat down beside him.

"I just hate everything, the fact that everyone is scared of me, none of them care for me and they say mean things about me when I'm not around. Why am I even alive?" Ret responded.

"Ret, I care about you, I hate to see you like this. You are like a son to me; don't listen to what the other kids say about you. They just don't understand what you, what you have been through is hard for someone around your age to imagine." Ms. Larouche replied.

"I hate it, I wish my parents didn't die, I want to know them. I want to know who they are." Ret said back.

"I wish they did too, you can think of me as a mother if you like, I can help you through your hard times if you ever wish to talk to someone." Ms. Larouche said as she held Ret close to her.

"Thank Ms. Larouche, it is nice to know at least one person cares about me. I can always count on you." Ret said with a smile.

"Ms. Larouche appeared to care an awful lot about you." Larry proclaimed.

"That's what you think, there is much more to this. Her words were all lies, she never cared about me. Let me take you to about a year later than that when the one person I trusted turned on me." The Reaper said as the room began to move quickly forward in time with Ms. Larouche talking to two people wanting to adopt Ret.

"He's a good child, he is not liked much by the kids here, but he has a heart of gold." Ms. Larouche said.

"Why don't the kids here like him?" the lady asked. She was wearing a beautiful red dress and had gorgeous long blonde hair and green eyes. Her husband was wearing a dark green tee-shirt and black pants. His hair was short and dirty blonde hair, while his eyes were brown.

"Because he is different, he has this crazy ability. He can move things without touching them, kind of like magic." Ms. Larouche replied.

"Magic, are you sure he has that?" the man asked.

"Yes," Ms. Larouche began, "I have seen it with my own eyes; he has moved many things with his mind in front of me. I am the only person who seems to be able to calm him down; I have been the only person on Earth he loves."

"You appear to have quite the strong bond with this kid, in particular." the man responded.

"He needs someone to be there for him, he can't live through this on his own, not at his age. I can only do so much for him though while caring for all the kids here." Ms. Larouche said, "It's really saddening to me to see all these kids with parents who either abandoned them or are who have died. That's why I took this job."

"That is a good reason to have gotten involved with this business." the lady replied, "It's nice to know people still care about others."

"Yes, and that is why I have had to keep one very important secret from him all these years." Ms. Larouche responded.

"What is the secret?" the man asked as you could see Ret's eyes peeking under the door to his room ready to hear.

"I have always told him that his parents are dead, I told him that his parents died in a car accident with a drunk driver. The truth though is that, his parents abandoned him at the age of two when they realized they couldn't handle a child at the ages of sixteen and seventeen. He can never know that, it would break his heart to know his parents are still alive, but not here." Ms. Larouche responded.

Ret slammed open his door and began to scream, "How could you? Why didn't you tell my parents were really dead? You told me I can trust you, is that a lie too?" Ret's hair began to flow upwards and his eyes turned to red.

"Ret, you can trust me, I lied to you because I felt it was best you didn't know the truth." Ms. Larouche replied.

"I don't believe you; I think you lied to me because you wanted to hurt me just like everyone else does. Tell these two to leave, I don't want anyone, I'll survive on my own without anyone, people aren't worth trusting anyways." Ret continued to yell as tears poured down his face.

"He doesn't appear to want anyone; we will go home and decide if we want to adopt him or not, and come back tomorrow." the woman said, and the man agreed with her.

"Don't even bother coming back, I don't want parents anymore. If my real ones don't care about me then why should anyone else?" Ret asked as his rage grew.

"Very well then," the man said as he walked up to Ms. Larouche and whispered, "Make sure that boy gets a good home, he needs someone to care about him." The man and woman then walked out the door.

Ms. Larouche looked at Ret, and before she could open her mouth Ret said, "I have nothing to say to you, leave me alone."

Ms. Larouche decided it would be best to let Ret cool down and talk to him tomorrow, but she was wrong. That night Ret did something that changed his whole life; he got up in the middle of the night while everyone was asleep and killed all the orphans. Then he went to Ms. Larouche's room and stood over her sleeping body with his eyes glowing red he said, "Goodbye you old hag." and he pointed at the roof as a sword appeared out of nowhere and struck Ms. Larouche in the heart.

"I had to do that, she betrayed my trust, so I had to kill her. She never cared about me." The Reaper said to Larry.

Ret then ran out of the orphanage center with blood all over his body and walked across the street to a large grass field. He pointed his finger at the orphanage and it went up in flames, "Goodbye you cruel place."

"That area is where your high school is now Larry." The Reaper stated, "Now, I have only a few more things to show, then you can learn who I truly am."

The background began to spin again and when it came back they were standing behind Ret who was going through a large number of personal papers. He picked up one document and looked at it closely; it was a birth certificate, but Larry couldn't read the name from where he was standing. Ret picked up a phone book and looked through it where he found his parents names along with their address. When he ran out the door the background began to swirl again as The Reaper and Larry saw Ret spiraling into a place of pure black where a creepy voice was heard, "Do you want to kill them Ret? I can give you that power."

"Yes, I want my mother and my father to both be dead." Ret answered.

"Very well," said the voice as Ret began to transform, "There you go." When the transformation completed Ret had became The Reaper, he had the black cloak and hood, the skeletal face and everything about The Reaper was him. Larry's eyes widened as he saw two Reapers standing beside him.

"I will go now; I will see you when this flashback has ended." The Reaper from Larry's time said as he disappeared.

The background began swirling again and when it stopped Ret was back where he was standing before his initiation and Larry watched him closely as Ret now known as The Reaper walked straight to a house. The scene had become blurry to Larry's eyes as he barely could see The Reaper at all now. With the faint view Larry saw The Reaper open the door to a two-story house.

"Come on out and fight me, mother and father." said The Reaper.

Two blurry images came down the stairs, one running and one walking, the male spoke but his voice was slightly messed up as the scene stayed blurry, "Ret, is that you?"

"Do not call me by my name father." The Reaper said as Larry saw a faint image of The Reaper slapping the man.

"Let's not do this here," the man said, "If you wish to hold a grudge with me, let's go outside and settle this."

"It doesn't matter where we go; I will kill you either way, and when I am done your wife will die as well. This is what you get for abandoning me." The Reaper replied as he and the man walked out the door to the grassy field across the street. Larry walked out to try and get an idea of what was going on in the fight.

The blurry images continued to cloud bother Larry's sight and hearing, but he managed to get an idea of what was going on in the fight. The Reaper jumped at the man with his scythe, but you could faintly see the man roll out of the way. "Curse you father." The Reaper said.

"You are not strong enough to defeat me." the man replied as you could see a something large fall towards The Reaper who dodged out of the way.

"Very impressive, I know now why I have these powers." The Reaper responded, "All the more reason to kill you."

"You won't get me son, you should just leave now and stay gone." the man stated as the large object on the ground hit The Reaper knocking him to the ground, "I am giving you one chance, go get stronger and then return to me."

"I am not stupid, therefore I will give you time to wait for me. I will come back to see you in two months on August 3rd be prepared." The Reaper replied as he vanished into thin air and Larry did as well appearing behind The Reaper back in a field of nothing.

The creepy voice from last time spoke again, "I see you couldn't kill him, you need to learn how to not sure mercy before you can. You also need a new name, Ret won't cut it anymore."

"Alright," The Reaper said as he began to think, "I think I have a name, The Grim Reaper."

"How did you come up with that." the voice asked.

"It's simple," The Reaper began, "I need something that described me as a killer, that's where the Reaper part comes in. I noticed all the letters for The Reaper were in my name, and then I had only G, R, I, and M left in my name. That's how I chose my name."

"That is an interesting way to choose a name, but a good when," the voice said, "Very well, you will from now on be known as The Grim Reaper."

"There's just one more thing I need to ask you. How can I become more heartless?"

"Simple, you must kill, don't show anyone you know mercy, no matter who they are." the voice replied.

"I think I can do that, in due time. I'm sure that in two months my heart will be as cold as ice." The Reaper responded.

"It will be; I know it will." the voice said back as the scene returned to the field of grass where the man was no longer standing and Larry's vision was no longer blurry. The background began to spiral again as it skipped forward to August 2nd.

When it stopped spiraling Larry saw The Reaper fighting with a guy in a secluded grassy area. The man looked around thirty six years old. He was six-foot-one and had short brown hair and green eyes. His white tee-shirt and blue jeans were slightly ripped where the scythe had grazed is body. "What do you want with me?" the man asked.

"I'm going to kill you, I know a certain person who is your friend. I don't want him to have any friends so you can thank him for what I am about to do to you." The Reaper answered.

The Reaper slashed his scythe at the man who ducked under it and rushed forward to punch The Reaper in the gut, but to no avail. The Reaper had caught his hand and pushed him back, "Fight like a man, you fool." The man then pointed at a wall and pulled a piece of it out bringing it in towards The Reaper who dodged it. The piece of wall came towards the man, but he moved away just in the nick of time.

"That was pretty close," the man said, "I almost killed myself."

"I wouldn't want that, I want to be the cause of your blood spewing out onto the grass." The Reaper said sadistically as he swung his scythe downward planning to slice the man in half, but he moved quick enough that The Reaper only got a piece of his shirt.

"You missed me, maybe you should get some better aim." said the man.

"You dare mock me. I was going a little easy on you because I felt you weren't worth my full effort, but now I see I need to kill you as ruthlessly as possible." The Reaper replied as he threw his scythe into the air.

"What is this?" the man asked staring at The Reaper's scythe flying into the air.

"Oh, I think you will enjoy this." The Reaper said as he began to move his arms so quickly you couldn't see them and the scythe split and the next thing the man noticed he was surrounding by sixteen scythes all making a circle around him, "Now be gone." said The Reaper as the scythes shot in towards him cutting him up into tiny pieces, all the flesh that was remaining was cut up.

"I told you I would kill you, and that I would show you no mercy, you saw a nice amount of my power. Now you will never see the light of day." The Reaper said as he walked away, "Now you know what I did to your heartless wife. People don't deserve love."

The background faded again as Larry spiraled back through the waves of red, blue and black. When it stopped spiraling he found himself back in the graveyard where The Reaper had Larry's mother pinned up to a large tombstone which said "Annabelle Saria Pragmer" on it.

"What are you doing with her?" Larry screamed.

"Relax Larry; she will only die if you can't kill me." The Reaper replied as the ground began to shake. More cracks formed as they did early and they had made it to were Kevin and Eric were on islands of grass away from Larry who was on a large grassy platform which The Reaper was standing on him with.

"What is this all about?" Larry asked.

"They can still fight me, but if they attempt anything I can easily knock them off into the endless abyss killing them as well." The Reaper answered.

"Eric, Kevin stay back. This is too risky considering we do not know how much power The Reaper has." Larry stated.

"Very wise of you Larry, nice to someone caring for their friends, nice to see someone has such a wonderful life. It makes it that much more pleasurable to take away." The Reaper responded, "I want to ask you; how did you like my life?"

"It was awful, but it is no reason for you to do the things you've done. I still need to know though, who are you? How are we related?" Larry asked.

The Reaper with his sickliest voice replied, "I thought it would be obvious. Are you that slow, little brother?"


	16. A Long Awaited Confrontation

**Chapter 16**

_A Long Awaited Confrontation_

"So that's who you are? I couldn't tell who your father was in the flashbacks due to the flashback being blurry." Larry replied.

"Ah yes, and there is much more than that. That guy who I used my special sixteen scythe death slice on was none other than Theodore Stautz, the grandfather or your friend Eric Stautz." said The Reaper raising his scythe.

"What is about our three families that draws you in? Why do you kill all those close to us?" Eric asked.

"That is none of your concern Eric, my reasons are my own. The only way I will tell you is if one of you are able to kill me." The Reaper answered, "And I have no intention of dying today."

"We have a right to know, you have killed everyone around us. Kevin has no mother, I have no father, and Eric does not have either of his parents and it's all your fault." Larry replied.

"My fault? I didn't kill them, that honor lies with Nyx." The Reaper responded.

"Nyx killed them under your orders; therefore it is like you killed them yourself." Larry yelled.

"Brother, will you please lower your voice?" The Reaper asked, "You are going to wake up the neighborhood; we don't want any extra commotion."

"You dare tell me what to do? Ret, there is one more thing I want to ask, can you explain your flashback a little more?" Larry responded.

"If you had been paying attention when Kevin's father took you back in time a few months ago you would've noticed all of this. Did you not notice all the cuts in Theodore's body after I finished with him? Did you not notice the date of his death? Did you notice anything at all? Let me refresh your memory, here is the article from the old newspaper you saw your Dad reading in that restaurant." The Reaper said handing an old article to Larry who proceeded to read it:

Mr. Theodore Stautz, Age 36, was found dead in his home  
Today by his bed. He was brutally ripped open, and had cuts  
On the little pieces of flesh that he had remaining. His wife,  
Hariet Stautz, Age 35, also died just last week, and was in  
Similar condition when she was found …  
Story continued on Page 2A

"I knew that date seemed familiar, I could've figured this out on my own if I would have thought about this would have been so easy to see. The date, the description of the death, everything is explained perfectly." Larry replied.

"Glad I didn't have to spell it out for you; I thought it was pretty simple." The Reaper responded.

"I still don't understand why you did this. Did you think that no one cared about you? It was obvious that you had one person who cared about you and you killed her." Larry said walking closer to The Reaper.

"As I said, she lied to me; all she gave me was empty promises and false hope. In the end, her death was inevitable, I had to kill her. That is none of your concern. What should be of some concern if your mother who still remains bound to that tombstone. Do you want me to kill her?" The Reaper asked walking backwards towards Ms. Pragmer.

At that point Larry point his finger forward sending a white stream of magic aimed directly at The Reaper who sidestepped it, "Your battle is with me, leave my mother out of this." Larry replied.

"She's my mother just as much as she is yours. I have a say so in whether she deserves her life or not." The Reaper responded as he appeared behind Larry and swung his scythe at him, Larry ducked underneath it and responded by shooting flames at The Reaper from his fingertips. The Reaper absorbed the attack with his scythe and shot it back at Larry who jumped out of the just soon enough to not get hit by the blast, the flames hit the grass and it began to burn the land.

"Nice going Ret, now look what you've done. Do you feel high and mighty now?" Larry asked.

"In fact, I do feel high and might now, you have no idea." The Reaper answered as Kevin shot a large blue light at The Reaper who moved out of the way from the attack. "I see your two little friends over there are going to be a nuisance, I'll just have to eliminate them from the battle." The Reaper slammed the bottom of his scythe into the ground as a magical black and purple dome came up around the platform he and Larry were standing on leaving Eric and Kevin on the outside. The flames disintegrated suddenly and the ground became enveloped in grey fog. The Reaper disappeared only to appear behind Larry and slash at his head.

Larry dropped to his knees and grabbed The Reaper's legs trying to trip him, "Fall down damnit!" he said as he continued to try tripping him.

"Get off of me." The Reaper said as he kicked Larry back and threw his scythe out his hand. When the scythe got about three feet away from him he pointed at it and began controlling it with his mind. The scythe came zooming in at Larry who moved to the side and grabbed the handle of the scythe. The Reaper continued to move it around and shook Larry off sending him to the ground. The scythe went up into the air from The Reaper's finger movements and came striking down at Larry who rolled out of the way again and then stood up. Larry pointed his finger at The Reaper's legs causing The Reaper to trip and fall. "Interesting, you got a hit on me." The Reaper said.

"Yeah, are you scared? Larry asked.

"Not at all, anyone cane trip someone up if they aim at their legs, you got lucky with a cheap move. It won't happen again." The Reaper split his scythe in two with his fingers and sent them both in at Larry. Larry jumped down and landed belly first on the grass pointed his fingers at the scythes as he fought with The Reaper for control. The Reaper won the battle of the strength sending the scythes at Larry which cut the top of Larry's shirt just over his shoulders as Larry tried to dodge. "Excellent, now I have a hit on you two, you're lucky you move so quickly or you would be bleeding from the neck right now."

Larry thought to himself, "Damn, I am glad I dodged that as much as I did." he then pointed at the grass revealing two swords which arose from beneath the ground and used them to stop The Reaper's scythes as they came back towards Larry. The Reaper pointed his other finger at the fog under Larry and sent it up twirling as if it was a twister which sent Larry flying back to the side onto the grass. The Reaper then sent in his scythes at Larry who ducked underneath them and through the fog to where his swords had fallen and picked them up. The scythes came back at Larry and he blocked them both with his swords while the scythes came to about two feet from his body. The Reaper made the blades of the scythe come at Larry's face by twisting the handles around the swords. Larry moved away as the scythe came within an inch of his face and sunk down to the ground.

"You are very quick brother," The Reaper began, "No doubt you are definitely a Pragmer with that speed." The Reaper sent the scythes into the ground after Larry, but the scythes struck nothing and The Reaper couldn't see what was going on because of the fog. At that second Larry's swords came in blade first at The Reaper who ducked causing the swords to get stuck in the surrounding dome. The fog disappeared and the grass was now visible again, but The Reaper still couldn't catch sight of Larry. The Reaper walked in some and Larry shot up from underneath the ground and struck The Reaper in the chin sending him flying onto his back. "You know how to use the surrounding environment Larry? Very impressive."

"Well, you didn't expect to come unprepared to face an opponent whose fighting style I have no knowledge of, did you?" Larry replied.

"You got the brains of a Pragmer too. Your common sense is lacking though if you feel as though you can defeat me." The Reaper screamed as the scythes came back towards Larry who sunk back into the ground and came up behind The Reaper and punched him in the back knocking him down onto his stomach. "You pesky child, I'll kill you!" The Reaper screamed again as he separated both his scythes giving him a total of four and sent them in towards Larry who shot four swords up from the ground and blocked the incoming blades from striking him. Larry sunk back into the ground and jumped up on the right side of The Reaper who dodged the attack and sent one of the scythes after Larry. Larry grabbed the handle of the scythe and held on for dear life as the Reaper moved the scythe around causing Larry to rock back and forth in the air. The other three scythes came up to slash at Larry who managed to dodge all the blows and when he got the opening he let go of the scythe and fell to the ground pointed towards it turning the grass to cotton long enough for him to make a smooth landing. As he was under some of the cotton the ground returned to normal and Larry was underneath it again. The Reaper split is four scythes into eight scythes and made four of them rotate around him. Larry shot up from the ground on the left side of the ground and was caught on the shoulder by one of The Reaper's scythe.

Larry fell to the ground bleeding from his should and The Reaper sent all eight scythes at Larry who seeped back into the ground quick enough to dodge it. Larry shot back out of the ground about fifty feet in front of The Reaper and brought up with him four more swords to add onto what he already had making the number of swords he had equal the number of scythes The Reaper had. Larry sent one sword at each of the scythes and The Reaper responded by blocking them. The blades struck each other back and forth with none of the scythes or swords gaining an advantage. The Reaper and Larry moved their arms around wildly trying to catch a break and knock off the others weapons.

"I never expected you to be this great of a challenge little brother." The Reaper complimented Larry.

"It's best to never underestimate your opponent." Larry replied as he and The Reaper continued to fight blade for blade. The advantage could not be found until The Reaper decided to make things more interesting and split his scythes once more until he had sixteen blades. Larry was breathing hard from all the sword manipulation while The Reaper was barely sweating from the magic he was using on his scythes. The Reaper caught each of Larry's swords in between his scythes and walked up towards Larry and grabbed him by the head throwing him to the ground.

"Get up, you weakling, you must have more in you than that. Fight me with everything you've got." The Reaper demanded as he walked back crushing each of Larry's blades with his scythes. "This was a pitiful battle, no one has ever escaped this next move, and you will not be the first." The Reaper put his arms together as wind appeared to blow up as his cloak was blowing up and down and his eyes turned to red. "This attack is too fast for the human eye to see." All sixteen scythes came in at Larry as a blur, but right before they struck Larry a small and red what appeared to be mini dome came up around his body stopping all sixteen scythes in their tracks getting them stuck inside of the dome. Larry jumped out from underneath the ground and struck The Reaper in the face causing him to sweat. Larry then disappeared back into the ground and attacked The Reaper from the back causing The Reaper to trip onto his stomach.

"So, no one has ever escaped that attack right?" Larry asked sarcastically breathing heavily.

"I have to admit that was impressive, I've never had so much fun battling anyone. You have taken me further than anyone ever has, but you still have not won." The Reaper responded as he was beginning to breathe a little heavier. The Reaper was sweating down his face and had a little on his cloak as well. Larry had blood pouring down his face onto his clothes from all the extensive use of magic. The Reaper came rushing in at Larry and went in for a punch. A small green ball formed around Larry blocking The Reaper's attack and a couple of second later Larry appeared behind The Reaper kicking him in the back of the head causing The Reaper's head to bang of the ball which had previously been surrounding Larry.

"You are much more difficult than I could've possibly imagined." Larry complimented The Reaper.

"Why thank you brother, nice to know someone in this family recognizes talent unlike our worthless father." The Reaper responded.

"You bastard! Now I am furious." Larry said as his eyes turned to red and white waves of energy surrounded him. Larry charged in quicker than ever and struck The Reaper in the face over and over again causing him to fall to the ground. Larry then rushed forward attempting to kick him in the head, but The Reaper caught Larry's leg and pushed him to the ground onto his back. Larry enraged formed another dome around himself and shot up underneath The Reaper who was still lying on the ground and punched him in his back sending The Reaper flying through the air hitting the top of the dome. The Reaper fell to the ground with sweat all over his body.

"You don't even know our father and you defend him so violently, he wasn't worth all that, I would know." The Reaper replied as he disappeared and came up behind Larry attempting to punch him in the back, but again Larry jumped and formed a ball around himself which blocked The Reaper's attack. Larry then appeared above The Reaper grabbing onto his head and violently punched away at his face. The Reaper struggled a little, but threw Larry off of him to the ground on his back.

"Will you just go down already?" Larry asked.

"You will never defeat me Larry, my skill greatly surpasses yours." The Reaper answered.

"Actually, I appear to have maintained the offensive in this battle, as you have done well to block most of my attacks. Defense will not win you this battle though." Larry replied.

"All I have to do is defend you long enough for your ability to use magic to run dry." The Reaper responded as he charged forward and went to punch Larry in the face. Larry seeped back into the ground and jumped up behind The Reaper knocking him flat on his face once more. "You are an annoying opponent little brother." The Reaper stood up and struck at Larry's face, but Larry dodged it and punched The Reaper in the gut. "Enough of this," The Reaper shouted as he pushed Larry onto his back, "Try and block this attack. The Reaper pointed his arms out and all sixteen scythes came out of the old dome and split up once more until there were now thirty-two surrounding Larry.

"Go ahead, I will just move out of the way again in some way." Larry replied.

The Reaper flew back into the air as his eyes turned blood red and a wave of black energy flowed around him. The thirty-two scythes all came in at Larry at the same time and Larry tried to form a dome around himself again, but his magic had run dry. The dome only came up over his back and left a decent sized hole in the top; two of the scythes struck inside of the hole and cut Larry's back. The dome then exploded and Larry was lying on the ground breathing heavily with blood all over his body. The Reaper jumped towards Ms. Pragmer who was still up against a tombstone with her name on it. By sheer strength of will Larry jumped in front of his mother and begged The Reaper not to kill her. "I don't have time for your wishes; I could care less whether she lives. It is my choice who dies. Death comes for all!" The Reaper said as he pushed Larry out of the way.

"No!" Larry screamed as he jumped and grabbed The Reaper's leg. The Reaper kicked him off knocking Larry far away from him and the thirty-two scythes appeared pointing towards Ms. Pragmer.

"Prepare to die, mother." The Reaper said.

"Why do you do this Ret, why do you wish to kill your own mother?" Ms. Pragmer asked.

"You abandoned me as a child; that is unforgivable." The Reaper replied, "Now, you will regret that by paying me back, with your life."

At that point the large dome surrounding the platform exploded as Eric and Kevin jumped onto the platform and charged after The Reaper. The Reaper tripped Eric with one of his scythes and Kevin jumped over the scythe sent after him. Kevin made it to The Reaper and punched him in the face. The Reaper enraged threw Kevin to the ground on his head which knocked Kevin out.

"Now that the desperate attempt at saving you is over," The Reaper said to Ms. Pragmer, "You will die." The thirty-two scythes came up pointed back at Ms. Pragmer and came in striking her body causing her to bleed from every piece of her body. Her breathing began to fade, but had enough strength to tell Larry, Eric and Kevin thank you and the she loved them. She then told him to run because they would not be able to stop The Reaper.

"I will not let them escape." The Reaper replied as Ms. Pragmer died. "Now, which of you three shall I kill first?"

Larry had flown into the air with his eyes glowing blood red and the white waves of energy forming around him again, "You killed my mother; I will kill you." Thirty swords appeared around The Reaper and came in blade first at The Reaper who disappeared causing all thirty-two blades to strike each other. The Reaper appeared behind Larry, but was quickly struck down by a blue stream of light sent from Kevin's finger. Larry grabbed a sword and lifted it up above The Reaper, "Now, it's time for you to die." Larry struck the sword down at The Reaper who disappeared from the scene.

"I don't have enough strength to finish you off right now; we will meet again one day. I can promise you that, as long as you can escape this." The Reaper's voice said as the surrounding area began to crack. Larry, Eric and Kevin all ran away watching the cracks closely. For the first one hundred feet they all managed to escape every crack. After they passed that point though Kevin fell into a hole, but was able to grab hold of the land.

"Kevin!" Larry screamed as he and Eric ran back for him.

"Forget me and save yourselves." Kevin replied as he continued trying to climb back onto the land. Mr. Able then appeared in front of his son who was having a hard time maintaining his grip on the land.

"Kevin, again you have disappointed me. You can't even pull your own self up." Mr. Able said as he lifted his foot up prepared to smash Kevin's hand sending him spiraling downward. Larry jumped towards Mr. Able knocking him off balance.

"You would think after I kindly showed you that valuable information you wouldn't try to come up against me. You didn't think I truly cared for a child I ran out on did you? I showed the past to give you a fighting chance, and this is how you thank me?" Mr. Able asked.

"How dare you treat your own son that way?" Larry responded.

"The way I treat my family is none of your concern, now shut up." Mr. Able said as he slapped Larry causing him to fall to the ground. Kevin grabbed his father's leg causing him to fall to the ground. "I can't believe the nerve of you." Mr. Able said to Kevin as he stood up and began to strike his foot at Kevin's hand. Eric struck Mr. Able in the back causing him to trip off the ledge beside Kevin where he had to hold on for dear life.

"That is not how you treat a member of your family." Eric said as he struck his foot down towards Mr. Able's hand. Mr. Able disappeared at the last second.

Mr. Able's voice was then heard from the sky, "This will not be the last you see of me. I will return as will Nyx and The Reaper. When that time comes your luck will run out."

Larry and Eric ran over to Kevin and pulled him back onto the land as the ground started to crack again. Larry formed a mini-dome around them and they escaped to the field which Kevin had trained them on. They looked over to where they were and noticed no destruction at all. "That is weird." Eric stated.

"Not really," Kevin replied, "The whole battle must've taken place in one gigantic dome, that must've been why he went through the trouble of distracting us with the hologram of Nyx that way we had to stay inside for the time being. The dome has now disappeared and the land will return to normal, unfortunately though, Ms. Pragmer can't be saved. She is dead and if The Reaper didn't take her body it will be found by somebody."

Larry spoke back, "And I wasn't able to save her. I don't have enough to strength to save anyone."

"Larry, this is partially my fault, I underestimated The Reaper and didn't train you enough. We will have to go back to all that next school year. I would help you before then, but I have somewhere to go until that time." Kevin replied, "Don't blame yourself, this is on me."

"I still should've been able to do more than I did, but I will gladly let you train me up more, and then I will avenge my mother." Larry said as he began to cry.

"I will train with you; I want to be of more assistance than I was this time. I need to be strong enough to fulfill my oath I made to you Larry. I will do all I can to protect you, and I will do all I can to help you avenge your mother by taking down that damn Reaper." Eric replied as he patted Larry on the shoulder and kept his hand on his shoulder.

"Then it is settled," Kevin began, "Larry, Eric, I will stay with you two tonight I figured Larry especially might appreciate little more company."

"Sure thing Kevin, you can stay anytime you wish." Larry responded.

Larry, Eric and Kevin all got up and walked back towards Larry's house and went up to his room to get some sleep after their long and painful night. The next morning they all awoke for school and turned on the news. The reporter was speaking of Ms. Pragmer's dead body and Larry turned up the volume:

Annabelle Saria Pragmer, mother of Larry Jason Pragmer  
Was found dead this morning in Hel's Graveyard, the cause  
Of death is uncertain, many slash marks were found in her body.  
The body is many pieces and the few pieces remaining are cut up,  
Surely this is a sad day for all, we will always remember  
Annabelle Saria Pragmer.


	17. He's Back

**Chapter 17**

_He's Back_

Larry reminisced about all the good times with his mother; going to church, the random mother-son conversation, but mostly he remembered her heart. How she was always kind, sweet and caring.

"Are you going to be okay Larry?" Eric asked.

"Yes, I will be fine; I just can't believe I'll never see my mother again." Larry answered.

"You will get to see her again one day, I know you will." Eric responded.

"He is right, she is in a better place and when your time comes you are sure to go that better place one day too with the heart you have. For now, just remember where she is at now is much better than this world." Kevin replied as he walked up to Larry and patted his shoulder.

"Thanks you guys! It's nice having people around who care about me." Larry said with a smile.

"We'll always be here Larry." Eric replied as he sat down beside Larry.

"I need that right now, with everything that has gone on lately." Larry responded as he continued to smile knowing that he had the best friends ever.

"You should really call Marie; she is probably worried sick about you Larry." Eric insisted.

"You're right Eric; I really need to do that." Larry responded as he ran down the stairs to get the phone and dialed in her number.

The phone rang three times before someone finally answered. "Hello." said Mrs. Pollish.

"Hey, this is Larry. Is Marie there?" Larry asked.

"Yes she is," Mrs. Pollish began, "Hold on I will get her." Larry could hear Mrs. Pollish yelling Marie's name across the house.

Larry could hear Marie grabbing the phone before she spoke, "Hey Larry, I heard the news about your mother. I am sorry, are you okay?"

"Yes, I am doing fine, Eric and Kevin consulted me a bit this morning and I feel much better now." Larry replied.

"I am glad; I was worried sick about you and am glad you called me." Marie responded.

"Sorry I didn't call any sooner, I have been really busy these last few days especially." Larry said back.

"It's okay Larry, we are getting to speak now and that's what matters." Marie said smiling on her side of the phone.

"Yes, that is what really matters. Also, I just found out, my mother's funeral will be taking place tomorrow evening so I will be gone at that time." Larry replied.

"Okay sweetie, I understand. What time does it start?" Marie asked.

"It will be at six o'clock so I will be there until at least seven." answered Larry.

"Alright, can I come to give you some company?" Marie responded.

"Of course you can, I will be more than happy to see you there." Larry replied.

"Alright, well I will meet you at your house around six-thirty then, will that work?" asked Marie.

"That would be a perfect time." Larry answered.

"Alright then," Marie began, "Well hey, I have to go for now. I will see you tomorrow evening at six-thirty."

"Yes, you will," Larry replied, "I Love You."

"I Love You too, bye." Marie said as she hung up the phone.

Larry went back up to his room where Kevin and Eric were sitting on his bed, "So how did the conversation go?" Eric asked.

"It went well," Larry began, "She is going to come to my mom's funeral tomorrow night."

"That works," Kevin replied, "Will be nice for you to have someone there to talk to, I'm sure it will be saddening no matter how strong of a heart you have."

"Yeah, I'm sure it will too, I will try my best not to worry her too much, but I won't be able to hold back tears if I am very sad." Larry responded.

"I know what you mean; I had the same problem when my mother died." Kevin said reminding Larry.

"As did I," Eric said, "It's really difficult; just know we will be here for you whenever you need us."

"I will definitely be able to remember that." Larry replied.

Meanwhile, in the "Endless Graveyard" The Reaper, Nyx and Mr. Able were speaking about their recent failure. The Reaper furious at Mr. Able began to scream at him, "You had one simple task; you were supposed to get rid of that damn son of yours."

"I tried my best master," Mr. Able began, "If it wasn't for those friends of his I would've killed him."

"That is no excuse for your failure." Nyx replied.

"You are right Nyx, I apologize for failing you. It will not happen again." Mr. Able responded.

"It better not or I will kill you." The Reaper said.

"Well, if you had done your job correctly and eliminated those other pesky brats it would've been much easier for me." Mr. Able replied like a smartass.

"This is about your failure, not about my own. If you dare speak to me that way again I will kill you." The Reaper responded.

Nyx leapt after Mr. Able and pinned him to the ground, "Come on master, let's not give him a second chance. I am thirsty for more blood."

"Nyx, now is not the time or the place for that," The Reaper replied, "He will get another chance soon enough and I will decide if he deserves life then."

"Fine," Nyx began, "You are lucky Daniel; I would've ripped out your throat."

"Good to know," Mr. Able began, "I will do my best to remember that."

"You better; I will not hesitate given the opportunity." Nyx responded.

"Sure thing," Mr. Able replied, "Just so you know though, should you ever attack me. I will not go down without a fight."

"Your desperate attempt at survival would just make it that much more fun for me." Nyx said as he showed Mr. Able his fangs.

"I don't have time for the likes of you." Mr. Able responded as he disappeared into a black fog.

"That man has some mouth on him, the nerve." Nyx said looking towards The Reaper.

"He really does," began The Reaper, "He will fail us and then we will have the pleasure of ending his life."

The Reaper and Nyx laughed maniacally with the evil thoughts of Mr. Able's impending death on their minds.

Back on Earth, Larry and Eric walked down the street as they planned to go visit Eric's girlfriend Shyann. When they got there Shyann jumped on Eric hugging him tightly, "I missed you." she said before turning to Larry, "Are you okay Larry?"

"Yes, I am fine; Eric was very helpful in making me feel better." Larry replied.

"That sounds like something my Eric would do," Shyann said with a smile, "He is a good guy."

"Yes, he is," Larry began, "I have known him most of my life so I would know."

"That is true, thank you for always being so kind to me Larry." Shyann responded.

"Of course, it's the least I can do," Larry replied, "I am going to let you two catch up alright? I have somewhere to go."

"Alright Larry, see you later." Eric and Shyann both said waving goodbye.

Larry walked away by himself towards the big grassy field where he saw Mister Shallowgrove sitting by the fence.

"Hello Larry," Mr. Shallowgrove said as Larry reached him, "Are you alright?"

"I am okay," Larry responded, "Not perfect, but I'm sure you wouldn't expect that for someone who just lost his mother."

"Definitely not," Mr. Shallowgrove began, "I understand you completely, the same thing happened to my mother before I came here."

"It is the worst thing that has ever happened to me. I hate that my dad died too, but I was so young I don't even remember him." Larry replied.

"Yeah, I fully understand where you are coming from," Mr. Shallowgrove told him, "And at your age is the times it will hurt the worst."

"Well, it definitely hurts." Larry responded as he began to cry.

"It will be alright in due time Larry," Mr. Shallowgrove replied as he let Larry lay his head on his shoulder, "If you need somewhere to stay you can more into my house."

"Well, I also have Eric living with me if you don't mind him tagging along." Larry said continuing to cry.

"Of course he can come," Mr. Shallowgrove replied, "He could use our help too, I know he has also had a hard time lately."

"You don't know the half of it," Larry began, "At first he was bottling it up until he finally said something, I still believe he is sad by the way he acts."

"That wouldn't be surprising," Mr. Shallowgrove replied, "This is something you just get over overnight."

"Definitely not," Larry responded, "Even when Mrs. Able died I was sad even though I didn't know her well."

"That was the lady who had the class I am teaching now before me right?" Mr. Shallowgrove asked.

"Yes, that is her," Larry answered, "She was a kind lady, always had a smile on her face. Her son was devastated."

"That's to be expected. Who is her son?" Mr. Shallowgrove replied.

"Kevin Able, he is a cool guy. Speaking of that, how do you know Eric?" Larry responded.

"I heard about his family on the news and they spoke of him, I have seen him walk around the school before to." Mr. Shallowgrove answered.

"Okay, that makes sense; they were saying his name a lot on the news a few months ago." Larry replied.

"Yes, they were which gave me all the more reason to move here when I left. I figured this town needed an adult figure for the children to consult with." Mr. Shallowgrove said as he made a handkerchief appear out of thin air and gave it to Larry to wash off his tears. "I figured you might like one."

"Thank you," Larry replied, "You know magic too then?"

"Yes, there are more people around who know magic than you can imagine, not everyone possesses the powers, only those with a strong heart who have experienced the sight of death have the chance to learn magic." Mr. Shallowgrove answered.

"I did not know that, that would explain why Kevin was able to teach it to me." Larry responded.

"Yes, that would be why." replied Mr. Shallowgrove.

"Alright, well I need to get going," Larry began, "I will think about your offer later and tell you what I think."

"Sure thing Larry, hope you get better." Mr. Shallowgrove replied as Larry got up.

"I will see you later Mr. Shallowgrove." Larry said as he walked away waving goodbye. Larry continued walking around town looking for people he knew. Walking around the corner to the back of the high school he ran into a dude he had not seen in awhile, "Hey there Johnny."

"Hey Larry, how are you doing dude?" Johnny asked.

"I am alright, not the best I have ever been, but alright." Larry answered.

"Yeah, I heard about your mom, sorry bro." Johnny replied.

"It's all good; I've had a lot of friends helping me out with that." Larry responded.

"That's righteous, if you ever need someone to talk to you can always talk to me." Johnny said with smile.

"Thanks man, the more people I have that are here for me the better." Larry said returning the smile.

"Anytime bro," Johnny began, "You deserve all the friends you can get."

"It feels great knowing I have so many who are here." Larry replied.

"Yeah," Johnny agreed, "I want to say thank you for giving Clarise a good friend to talk to, that means a lot to me bro."

"I'm here for anyone who is here for me," Larry responded, "I am going to go for now; I will catch up with you later."

"Alright man, it was nice seeing you." Johnny said as he waved goodbye.

"It was nice seeing you too Johnny." Larry replied as he walked away out behind the school. While back there he walked into someone he hadn't expected to.

"Hey there Larry, how's your mom?" Ron laughed.

"Would you mind saying that a bit louder? I couldn't hear you over the sound of your ego." Larry responded.

"You have some nerve kid." Ron said as he walked closer to Larry.

"Funny, I was about to say the same thing about you." Larry replied walking towards Ron.

"You must think you are awfully funny to talk to me like that." Ron said he grabbed Larry by the shoulder.

Larry knocked Ron's hand off of him, "Don't you ever lay your hand on me." he said.

Ron was about ready to punch Larry until a news reporter interrupted them and came to speak to Larry. "Are you Larry Pragmer?" the man asked.

"Yes, what do you want?" Larry asked.

"Turn the camera on," said the man. The reporter was about six-foot-two with near average weight; he had brown hair and grey eyes as he was in his news reporter suit with a HEN tag on the top-right corner of his suit. Welcome citizens of Hel, and welcome to another special of edition of Hel Entertainment and News, we are here today with a very special guest whose name has been going around the town a lot lately. Without further ado let me introduce to you, Larry Pragmer."

"What do you want? I didn't tell you that you could interview me." Larry replied.

"I'm sorry, but in this town you don't have a choice, now please cooperate." the reporter whispered in his ear before turning back to the camera, "My name is Brian Trainer and I will be here doing an interview with Mr. Pragmer for you today."

"Fine, if you want to know that much, but I will not answer any questions I don't feel like." Larry replied.

"Alright first off, what were your thoughts when you heard about the death of your mother?" Brian asked.

"What the hell kind of a question is that?" Larry replied, "How do you think I felt? I lost my mother for crying out loud. Do you think I went home and ate ice cream singing the theme song to the Teletubbies?"

"Teletubbies, so that's what you did, thank you for that answer it will entertain our viewers." Brain responded.

"That wasn't my answer, that was me replying to you being a dumbass." Larry replied.

"Now sir," Brian began, "That is not a very nice thing to say on public television."

"Yeah, and you coming up here invading my privacy just put the cherry on top of my wonderful day." Larry responded sarcastically.

"Apparently, our friend Mr. Pragmer has a bit of an attitude." Brian said to the camera.

"I'm sorry, how rude of me to respond to your bad manners with my own. Can we just get to the next question?" Larry asked.

"Yes, the sooner I get out of here the better." Brian answered.

"Likewise," Larry said, "I will be very happy if I never see your face again."

"Alright, next question, we heard that you were around your mother when she died from an unknown source. Do you know how she died?" Brian asked.

"Yes, I do; I know exactly how she died," Larry replied, "I doubt your feeble little mind would believe me though."

"Go ahead and try me." Brian responded.

"Alright," Larry began, "She was murdered, by The Reaper."

Brian began to laugh, "What a lie it will definitely make our viewers proud though."

Larry was infuriated, "See I told you that you wouldn't believe me."

"That's because your story is ludicrous. The Reaper has been dead for years." Brian replied and with those words The Reaper suddenly appeared behind him.

"He is not lying," The Reaper began, "I have returned."


	18. The Funeral

**Chapter 18**

_The Funeral_

"Hello there, Mr. Reaper." Brian said nervously.

"Hey there young privacy interrupting reporter," The Reaper replied staring down the reporter, "I suggest you leave my brother alone or I will kill you."

"Okay sir, the interview will end here." Brian responded as he ran away from the scene tripping over a branch for a brief second before running again.

When Larry turned back to where The Reaper was standing he had already disappeared, "I wonder why he showed himself." Larry said to himself, "Oh well, I think I've had enough excitement for today."

Larry started walking home across the long grassy field where Kevin ran up to him, "Hey Larry, your day gotten any better yet?"

"It's been alright," Larry began, "Mostly just catching up with some people I haven't spoken to in awhile."

"Sounds pretty cool," Kevin replied, "I'm not interrupting with you visiting up with people am I?"

"Oh no, definitely not; I was actually just working my way home." Larry responded.

"Cool, mind if I chill out over there for awhile?" Kevin asked.

"I don't mind at all." Larry answered.

Larry and Kevin walked through the field looking at the houses as they walked by them until they reached their destination walking up and into Larry's house where they sat down on the couch. "Well, these last couple of days have certainly been interesting if I do say so myself." Kevin said kicking back onto the couch.

"Yes, it has," Larry began, "I have to ask you something. Do you know Mr. Shallowgrove?"

"The new drama teacher," Kevin responded, "Yes, I do know him. Why do you ask?"

"Well, he asked me if I would like to come live with him since I don't have my parents anymore, and I need some advice on whether or not I should." Larry answered.

"Well," Kevin replied, "I can't tell you what to do, but I don't see any harm in it. Mr. Shallowgrove has always been a kind and loving person. The overall choice is up to you."

"Yeah, I think I am going to; I even asked if Eric could come along with us and he said yes." Larry responded.

"There you go, sounds like you have your mind made up already, it would be nice to have someone to look after you and to take care of you. Someone your age can't do that them self." Kevin said back sitting up on the couch.

"That is very true," Larry agreed, "Thanks a lot!"

"No problem man, that's just what I do for my friends." Kevin smiled.

"You really are a good guy Kevin, I am glad to have you as a friend." Larry replied.

"Thanks dude," Kevin began, "It's nice to be appreciated.

Larry and Kevin sat around for a couple hours just chilling and talking about random things. Eventually Eric came into the house and joined in on the conversation. "What are you guys talking about?" Eric asked as he walked in the house.

"Well," Larry said, "At the moment, we were discussing when we should continue our magic lessons next year after Kevin returns from his vacation."

"Interesting, what have you come up with then?" Eric asked.

"We're thinking probably around four in the afternoon every day after school, seems like a good time for both of us." answered Larry.

"Well, maybe I can train up with you guys then, I definitely need some more practice." Eric insisted.

"What do you think Kevin?" Larry asked.

"Sounds, good to me as long as you two don't mind us all training together." Kevin responded.

"Not at all," Eric replied, "In fact, I prefer us all three working on it together over separate private lessons."

"Yeah, it seems like it would be a lot more fun this way." Larry agreed.

"Alright then," Kevin said, "Then right now we will have it set for the three of us to meet up every day at four in the afternoon in the big grassy field."

"Certainly," began Larry, "And if anything happens where we need to change the time we will let you know."

"Perfect," Kevin responded, "Well hey guys, hate to rush off, but I should probably go on home. I will be leaving in the morning for my vacation."

"Why don't you go ahead and get your stuff ready, come back and stay here for the night?" suggested Larry.

"Sure, I guess that would work," Kevin replied, "I will be back later tonight then."

Kevin walked on home to go get his stuff ready as Larry and Eric continued to chill out on the couch and watched some television. They hung out for about another hour before Kevin returned.

"Welcome back." Eric said.

"Thanks," Kevin replied, "So anything fun we might be able to do for the rest of the night?"

"Well," Larry said as he began thinking, "We could go out to my garage and shoot some pool."

"You have a pool table Larry?" Eric asked.

"Yes, I do; I haven't shown you it yet?" Larry replied.

"No, you haven't you should show us." Eric responded.

"I agree," Kevin said, "I very much do enjoy playing pool."

"Alright then," Larry replied leading the way through the house and out to the garage where his pool table was sitting. The top of it was red unlike most pool tables, "I didn't want the regular green one so we went with red."

"Hey it's all cool with me." Eric replied.

"Definitely," Kevin agreed, "It looks really cool like this."

"Well, let's get our cues." Larry began as he walked to the wall behind him and pulled of three sticks. "Do either of you have a preference on cue size?"

"Nope, I don't, I shoot well no matter what the size of the cue." Eric answered.

"I don't need any specific size either." Kevin replied.

"Alright then," Larry grabbed the twenty ounce cue for himself and gave Kevin a twenty-one ounce, Eric got a twenty-two ounce. "Hope that works; want to play some cutthroat?"

"Sure, that works for me." Kevin replied.

"I'm ready to play whatever you guys want to." Eric said approvingly.

"Alright, rack them up." Larry said, "I will be one through five, Eric you can be six through ten and Kevin you get eleven through fifteen. Remember not to make your own balls in."

"We know how to play Larry." Eric laughed.

"Doesn't mean you can't forget, this way you can't make any excuses." Larry replied as he walked up to the table; he broke the balls up making the thirteen ball on the break.

"Thanks a lot Larry that was helpful." Kevin said.

"You're Welcome!" Larry said sarcastically as he took a long shot on the six ball across the table and missed making Eric come up to the table. Eric took a shot at the one and made it in using the proper amount of English to put the cue right where he could easily knock the two ball in. Eric walked across the table to where the cue ball landed afterwards and shot in Kevin's twelve ball.

"Do we get another turn?" Larry asked.

"I guess we will see." Eric said taking a shot at the three which he missed. Kevin walked up to the table and took a shot at the five ball missing badly.

"Wow Kevin that was way off." Larry said as he walked up to the cue ball knocking in Eric's seven ball followed by Kevin's eleven ball until he missed the next shot on Eric's six.

"Come on, is this all you guys got?" Eric asked as he knocked in Kevin's fourteen ball leaving him with only the fifteen; Eric took a shot at the fifteen, but missed it.

"You play very well Eric," Kevin said as he knocked in Eric's six ball with his eyes closed, "Just not good enough." Kevin proceeded to run the rest of the table making him the winner of the game.

"Wow Kevin, you are really good." Larry complimented.

"Thanks, I've been playing since I was about ten years old. I figured I would you both two rounds to try and knock me out." Kevin replied.

Larry, Eric and Kevin all went up to Larry's bedroom as it was getting late. "Well goodnight you guys, just in case you are gone when I wake up have a good vacation Kevin." Larry said as Eric nodded back showing he was saying the same thing.

"Thanks you guys, I am sure it will be fun." Kevin replied as the three of them went to sleep.

When the next morning rolled around Larry and Eric wok up to notice Kevin had already left for his vacation. They walked down to the kitchen and found an envelope left on the table with their names on it. Larry and Eric both read it and nodded in agreement. The rest of that day before the funeral Larry and Eric spent the time watching television and just relaxing. After a couple of hours of watching the television Larry broke down into tears. "Larry what is wrong?" Eric asked.

"It really just hit me that my mother is really dead," sighed Larry, "I was sitting here thinking about growing up with her as a child and it just makes me sad." he said as he continued to cry.

"I'm sorry dude, it's good to cry though it helps you release your sadness." Eric replied.

"Yeah," Larry began, "It makes me feel a whole lot better to cry this all out."

Larry and Eric sat there for another couple hours not saying much as their unspoken words showed that they cared about each other. Five-thirty rolled around and they heard a knock on the door.

"That's Marie," Larry said as he went and opened the front door, "Hey Marie, how are you?"

"I'm alright, are you okay? You look like you were crying" Marie responded.

"I'm good, just started thinking about my mom and Eric consulted me about it." Larry answered.

"I'm glad you have such good friends to help you out with these things; you deserve them." Marie said with a smile.

"Thanks, and I am glad to know you are here to help me with all this stuff." Larry replied.

"Well, we ought to get going; it will be starting soon." insisted Marie.

"Right," Larry said as he got up and they walked out the door with Eric headed towards the cemetery. Eric waited for Shyann before leaving giving Larry and Marie a nice fifty feet to themselves. They all made it to the cemetery with two minutes to spare.

The man in charge was already there ready to make his speech when the next two minutes passed. "We are gathered here today to remember the life a kind and caring individual. Annabelle Saria Pragmer rarely ever frowned and she was always there for anyone who asked for help. She was an avid churchgoer who will definitely be going to a better place. Annabelle dedicated her life to God and brought her son Larry in with her." The man continued on to finish a wonderfully prepared speech that left Larry in tears where Marie held him on her shoulder.

"Thank you for everything Marie!" Larry said with a small smile, "I'm going to get one last look at my mom before she is gone forever."

"I'll let you have some alone time up there then." Marie replied with a smile.

Larry walked up to the casket grabbing onto the side of it looking down at his mother who now looked like a wax figure. He grabbed her hand and cried as he spoke, "I will always remember you mother, everything you did for me I will always appreciate even when we argued about something I appreciated everything about you. I love you mother." Larry said as he walked away and let the guys put her casket down in her grave.

Larry walked back to where Marie was standing and had a convincing smile on his face although he was still sad, "Are you okay now?" Marie asked.

"Yes, I said as much as I could," Larry began, "I will always remember her, but she is gone now. I will always love her."

"Of course you will Larry," Marie responded, "She is your mother. I have to ask you; did anyone find out exactly what happened?"

"I know what happened," Larry replied, "I saw it with my own eyes."

"What happened then?" asked Marie.

Larry told Marie about what happened the night before, about how he went off with Eric and Kevin and took on The Reaper. He told her about his fight with The Reaper and how he found out who he really was, and how he was the one to kill his mother. Larry told Marie word for word everything that had happened.

"Wow," Marie began, "All that really happened then?"

"Yes, it did, it was awful." Larry replied.

"It sounds like it. Next time you go off doing something dangerous will you tell me?" Marie asked.

"I can't promise I will, I don't want you to worry." answered Larry.

"I want to help you if the time comes again Larry." Marie replied.

"Marie, I would prefer you not to, I wouldn't want anything to happen to you too." Larry responded.

"I didn't say I would go and fight him myself, but I will do what I can to help you get rid of this Reaper once and for all." Marie said with a smile.

"If that's what you want Marie, just don't do too much." Larry replied.

"I'll be fine Larry; we will take this evil down together. Not just me, all of your friends are here to help you." Marie said as she hugged him around his neck.

"Thank you, I love you." Larry said and he proceeded to give her a kiss.

Back at the "Endless Graveyard" The Reaper and Nyx were making their own plans. "Well, looks like my little brother has got himself a girlfriend." Nyx said maniacally.

"Don't even think about it Nyx, I have no intention of getting her involved in the crossfire at the current time."

"Oh come on, can't I kill her just a little bit?" asked Nyx.

"No," The Reaper answered, "We cannot use her unless we need to take desperate measures."

"You're no fun master." Nyx replied.

"Don't say that Nyx, I have my own plan already in action." responded The Reaper.

"What is that plan master?" asked Nyx.

"You will see in due time." answered The Reaper.

"Come on, I am your most faithful servant, tell me?" Nyx demanded.

"Patience Nyx, it will all make sense when the time comes. Larry will never see it coming." The Reaper replied.

"Alright," began Nyx, "If you say so, I guess it will be worth the wait."

"It will be, let's just say this," The Reaper began, "Larry made a mistake by escaping me, I mistake he will soon come to regret."

"I will fight beside you loyally as I always do." Nyx replied.

"I know you will Nyx, you have always been here and I know you won't leave me." responded The Reaper.

"Then it's settled master?" Nyx asked.

The Reaper replied to the question with a simple answer, "Yes, it is settled. I will get my revenge."


End file.
